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MOORE, ANDERSON, & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 

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MOORE & ANDERSON'S PUBLICATIONS. 
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PRO CEEDINGS 



HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP OHIO. 

Agreeably to the request of the members of the 
"Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio," held 
May 24th, 1852, ISTelson Cross, Esq., reported on the 
"History of the Discovery of the Valley of the Missis- 
sippi." Mr. Cross, at the conclusion of his report, says: 

"From a careful review of Mr. Hart's work, and a com- 
parison of its leading points with other histories, I am 
of the opinion that the facts which the author has therein 
presented, may in the main, be relied upon as true; and 
much credit is due to him for his industry and care in 
gathering together so much valuable information concern-, 
ing the Discovery and Colonization of the Mississippi 
Yalley. 

"More recent discoveries have rendered it certain that 
in ages gone by there existed in the Great West an un- 
known and extinct race, traces of which have been found 
along the Yalley of the Mississippi, bearing conclusive 
evidence of a high degree of art and civilization. 

"What a field is here presented for speculative inquiry, 
inquiry wdiich, unfortunatel}^, must always be sjyeculative. 
They have had their day and generation ; have lived, 
flourished, decayed, and passed away, leaving behind no 
monument to tell of their faded glory, save the tombs of 
the departed. 

"Like ourselves, they had home, country, friends, 
affections, hopes, and aspirations, but failed to perpetuate 
even a name. Would that some worthy hand might be 
inspired to lift the oblivious curtain which wraps their 
past history, and unveil to us the secret of their lives, 
that we might profit from its admonition." 



HISTORY 



VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 



ADOLPHUS M. HART, 



AUTHOR OF "ASMOS, OR 'tIS SEVENTY YEARS AND MORE;" "LIFE IN THE 

FAR west;" "notes and incidents OF AMERICAN 

REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY," ETC. ETC. 




CII^CINNATI: 
MOORP], ANDERSON, WILSTACH & KEYS, 

28 WEST FOURTH STKFJ-IT. 

NEW YORK : NEWMAN & IVLSON. 

1853. 



Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 

MOORE, ANDERSON, WILSTACH & KEYS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Ohio. 



CINCINNATI: 
C. A. MORGAN & CO., STEREOTYPERS, 

HAMMOND ST. 






PREFACE. 

In the month of February last, the writer published, in St. 
Louis, the ** History of the Discovery of the Valley of the 
Mississippi," which comprised an accurate account of the dis- 
covery and colonization by the French of the country West of 
the Alleghanies, up to the passing of the Treaty of Aix la 
Chapelle in the year 1748. 

Believing that the narration of the " leading events" in 
Western History, subsequent to that period, would render the 
work more interesting, the author directed his attention to the 
task of compiling, from the numerous pamphlets on the shelves 
of several Historical Societies in the W^est, and a few manu- 
scripts to which he was permitted to have access, a brief and 
succinct statement of the most important facts in the History 
of the Valley of the Mississippi. Some of these have become 
exceedingly scarce, and while the information contained in them 
is of surpassing interest to the student of Weslern History, it 
is almost inaccessible to him. 

How far the author has succeeded in compiling a work, from 
the materials at his command, which will be acceptable to the 
inhabitants of the Valley of the Mississippi, he leaves for 
them to determine, availing himself of this occasion to thank 
them for the kind manner in which they received the small 
portion of the work heretofore pubhshed. 

Cincinnati, Nov. 30, 1852. 



TO THE 

EETEEEM) SiLiTTEL SBTPSOX WrX)D, 

MASTER OF ARTS, OK THE UNIVEESITY OF C.\iIBEII»GE, EXGLAXD, 

AM) 

EECTOE OF THE PARISH OF THREE RIVERS, 

IX THE 

PEOVIXCE OF CANADA, 

Cb.is tDark 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

AS A 

TOKEN OF THE AFFECTION AND ESTEEM 

OF HIS 

OLD FRIEND AND ?Ul?lL, 



THE AUTHOR. 



HISTORY 



VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 



Thebe are many historical associations, which cluster 
around the ancient denizens of Canada, in their efforts to 
colonize this section of the American continent, and to 
rescue it from the savage tribes who wandered in its path- 
less deserts. Canada was the gateway, through which 
the pioneers of civilization entered, to disclose to the 
world the rich and exhaustless treasures of the West, or 
rather it may be likened to the portal of a mansion, 
through which admission was gained to the inner cham- 
bers, ornamented with every production of nature, and 
disclosing to the view, in their gaudy array, pictures, 
which had never been dreamt of, in the wildest efforts of 
the human imagination. The poor and ignoble Colonist, 
who emigrated in the seventeenth century, from the hills 
and valleys of his native country, with his ax in his 
hand, and his gun on his shoulder, to clear the forest 
and drive away the red-man from those paths which had 
been familiar to him from his infancy, exhibits to the 
view of the philanthropist of the present day, an exam- 
ple of courage and energy, of fortitude amidst danger, 
and of heroism in his trials, which marks not the course 
of the modern adventurer. Changeable as are the cir- 

(13) 



\ 



14 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

ciimstances of human life, the Canadian colonist remains 
at the present day, as unchanged as ever. Ko longer is 
he required to wage an exterminating warfare, against 
the aboriginal tribes of the country, no longer does he 
hunt " the wild beast from his lair," but now, with his 
bible in one hand and his ax in the other, religion goes 
hand in hand with civilization, and wherever one sees 
the boundaries of the primeval forest receding from his 
view, there he observes the glittering spires of the Parish 
Church, reflecting the rays of the sun in the firmament 
of heaven, and betokening the soothing influence of reli- 
gion, over a moral and an industrious people. 

Nor can we withhold our meed of praise from those 
French missionaries, w^ho took their departure from Que- 
bec, and traveled amongst all the Indian tribes, from 
Hudson's Bay, on the one hand, to the countries along 
the shores of the Mississippi, on the other. History has 
commemorated in bright and glowing colors, whatever 
events transpired, during the march of the crusaders to 
rescue the Holy Land from the power of the Saracen; and 
here the valiant warrior and hero was accompanied by 
armed hosts, bent on achieving their object and having 
the means to do so ; but with the missionary who stepped 
beyond the bounds of civilization, and wandered through 
trackless deserts (his only compass, the hlazeed bark of 
the pine-tree ; his only food, the fortiiitous product of 
the chase), history has not done justice to the noble 
philanthropy by which they were animated, nor to their 
ardent devotion for the progress of science and religion, 
amongst the benighted nations of the earth. The cross 
was the emblem of both the Crusader and the mission- 
ary, but there must have been something sad and touch- 
ing, in the eifect, which this religious emblem produced 
on the minds of the Savages, in the midst of the somber 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 15 

and silent forests of the Xew World, when it conld dis- 
arm their fierce hearts and render them sensible to the 
liveliest feelings of emotion. There must be something 
soothing in religion, when it could mollify the wild pas- 
sions of man, in the savage state, and make him succumb 
to its influences. It was owing to the existence of these 
feelings that the French missionary was able to estab- 
lish those friendly relations, which were afterward en- 
tertained toward him, by the denizens of the forest. 
The religious doctrines which he inculcated, contributed 
to draw closer the ties which connected him with his 
neophytes. Hence the facilities which he had, to pene- 
trate from one cabin to another, from one nation to ano- 
ther, even in countries the most distant. "Whether we 
regard their efibrts as connected with the cause of sci- 
ence or religion, or as tending to develop to the inhabi- 
tants of Europe an example of energy and activity in 
the cause of human civilization, the French Missionary 
of the seventeenth century will always be an object of in- 
terest to the student of American history, and will al- 
ways be considered, as having contributed his share in 
the regeneration of the aboriginal tribes of this Conti- 
nent, from the galling chains of superstition and igno- 
rance. The warriors and statesmen of the reign of Louis 
the Fourteenth fade into insignificance, when put in com- 
parison with what the genius of a Colbert and a Talon 
planned, or what the energy and activity of an Allouez 
and a Marquette accomplished. "Do you not know," 
said the interpreter of an Indian tribe to these mission- 
aries, " do you not know, " said he, " that these distant 
nations never spare strangers ; that the wars which they 
carry on, infest their frontiers with hordes of robbers ; 
that the grand river (meaning the Mississippi,) abounds 
in monsters, who devour men and animals, and that the 



16 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

excessive heat there causes death ? '* "We know that, " 
said they, "we know all, but by the decree of Provi- 
dence, we have been appointed, as humble missionaries, 
in the service of God, to disseminate His holy doctrines 
amongst countless tribes, in the deserts of America, and 
with His will, we shall do our duty. " 

Long before what is now known as " the West, " was 
discovered, several missionaries had penetrated beyond 
the hunting-grounds of the Ottawas and the Abenakies, 
and had established themselves along the borders of Lake 
Huron. The Fathers Breboeuf, Daniel, Jogues, Kaim- 
bault and several other members of their order, had estab- 
lished villages along the shores of that Lake, amongst 
others. Saint Joseph, Saint Michael, Saint Ignace and 
Sainte Marie. The latter, placed at the outlet of Lake 
Superior into Huron, was for a long time the central 
point of the various missions, in that distant part of the 
country. Later, in the year 1671, the scattered tribes of 
the Hurons, fatigued of wandering from country to 
country, fixed themselves at Michilimackinac,* a place 
situated on the shores of Lake Superior. This was the 
first establishment founded by a European, in the State 
of Michigan. The Indians who were found there, re- 
ceived from the French the name of " Sauteurs, " or 
" Leapers -' on account of their proximity to the Falls of 
Sainte Marie, known as the " Saidt Sainte Marie.''^ 
These Indians belonged to the Algonquin Tribe. 

In the space of thirteen years (from 1634 to 1647), 
this extensive territory was visited by eighteen French 
missionaries, beside others attached to their ministry, 

* The name of this locality is derived from a small Island formerly 
celebrated in those Countries, from the height of its banks, which might 
be seen, at a distance of twelve miles. It is situated at the junction of 
Lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior. 



OF TPIE MISSISSIPPI. 17 

who, animated by zeal in the cause of civilization, lent 
their services to their clerical brethren, in order to reclaim 
these savages from the depths of ignorance and supersti- 
tion into which thej had cast themselves. The Five 
Nations, comprising the Iroquois, one of the fiercest 
tribes that inhabited those countries, were located to the 
north of Cataraqui, between the River Ottawa and Lake 
Ontario, but nearer the latter, and the travelers had to 
pursue their route across that part of the country which 
was watered by the tributaries of the Ottawa, the river 
Akuanagusin, marked on the old charts, being one of 
those tributaries. At that period, the South of Lake 
Erie, beyond Buffalo was almost unknown to either the 
voyageurs or the missionaries. It might be interesting 
to particularize those sections, on the borders of Lake 
Erie or Oswego (as it is marked on an old chart, in the 
possession of the writer), which were then inhabited by 
the Indian tribes, but the geographers of those days in 
Europe do not seem to be very remarkable for accuracy 
in fixing the localities of Indian settlements. Fort 
Sandoski, (Sandusky,) now the termination of a Rail- 
road, connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio, is marked 
on this map, and the euphonious appellations of Tus- 
carora, Mingos, Kittawing, Schohorage, Fort Mohican 
and the Cross of Holfway, need only be mentioned, 
as indicating those parts of the Western States, now 
teeming with millions of human-beings, devoted to the 
arts of agriculture and commerce, and supplying the 
world with the products of a soil, which a bounteous 
Providence has given them, to promote the prosperity 
and happiness of their fellow-men. In the year 1640, 
the Fathers Chaumonot and Breboeuf, completed the 
survey of the valley of the Saint Lawrence, from the foot 
of Lake Superior to the Ocean. About this period the 



18 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

two missionaries Charles Raimbault and Isaac Jogues 
left Canada, to visit Lake Huron, and after a pleasant 
vojage, in which they were struck with the picturesque- 
ness of the scenery along the shores, and amongst the 
islands of Lake Huron, they arrived in seventeen days 
at Sault Sainte Marie, where they met with a friendly 
reception from about two thousand Lidians, assembled 
there. As they advanced on their journey, the bounda- 
ries of the American Continent seemed to recede from 
them, and they learnt the names of numerous Indian 
tribes, who it was said, inhabited the South and West, 
and amongst others, the " Sioux," whose hunting-grounds 
were situated at a distance of several leagues from Lake 
Superior. They heard also, of several tribes of war- 
riors, who lived by the products of the soil, but whose 
race and lano;uao;es were unknown to them. — ''Thus," 
observes an American author, " from the religious zeal 
of the French, a cross was erected on the borders of 
Sault Ste. Marie, and on the confines of Lake Superior, 
from whence they saw the lands of the Sioux, in the 
valley of the Mississippi, five years, before Elliot of 
New England had addressed even a single word to the 
Indians, who were but six miles from the harbor of 
Boston. " 

It may be said, that at this period (1646), the safety 
of the French possessions in America, depended chiefly 
on the efibrts of the missionaries to preserve peace, 
which they succeeded in doing with all the neighboring 
Indian tribes, with the exception of the Iroquois. The 
small French Colony, on the banks of the Saint Law- 
rence, situated at such an immense distance from the 
mother country, with limited resources, and scarcely food 
to eat would have been annihilated had it not been for 
the friendly alliance, which these missionaries had been 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 19 

able to contract with the native tribes. The Five Na- 
tions had already boasted, that they would soon drive 
Montmagny* and the French to the sea, from whence 
they came. But the bravery and the courage of these 
men, who, with the breviary hanging around their necks, 
and the cross in their hands, penetrated the innermost 
recesses of the forest, gave these people a lofty idea of 
the power and the resources of the nation, to which 
they belonged. There they w^ere, from the shores of 
Hudson's Bay, to the gulf of Saint Lawrence and the 
forests of Michigan, engaged day and night, in the ac- 
complishment of their high and lofty purposes, animat- 
ing, encouraging, and rewarding those, who were dis- 
posed to be friendly with them, and intimidating those, 
whose hostility they were menaced with. Brought up 
to a life of strict austerity, accustomed to that self-de- 
nial, which was enjoined by the sect to which they be- 
longed, the terrors of a violent death, at the hands of 
ruthless savages could not deter them from fulfilling the 
solemn trust, which had devolved upon them, and that 
very confidence which they had in the holiness of their 
cause, enabled them the more readily to accomplish their 
duty. Providence smiled benignantly on their efforts, 
for had it not been that the tribes, whose alliance was 
courted by the French, feared the hostility of the Iro- 
quois, in all probability they would have rejected the 
overtures of the missionaries and preferred w^ar to peace. 
In the year 1659 (as is related in the narrative of the 
Missionaries), two young voyageurs^ or travelers, led by 
curiosity and the spirit of adventure, joined an Algon- 
quin tribe, and spent the winter on the shores of Lake 
Superior. With their eyes fixed on the immense sol- 

* Governor of l^ew France or Canada. 



20 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

itudes of the "West, and wondering what people inhab- 
ited those forests, they heard with avidity the glow- 
ing accounts, by the Huron tribe, of those " Sioux, " war- 
riors and they resolved to visit them. They met on 
their route with scattered tribes, who had been dispersed 
by the Iroquois, and they at length arrived in the coun- 
try of the '' Sioux, " who, to their surprise, tendered to 
them the hand of fellowship. They were a numerous 
tribe, being divided into forty companies, and their man- 
ners, while they were unlike those of the Algonquins 
and Hurons, were calculated to impress the minds of the 
travelers with a favorable opinion of~them. The Histo- 
rian of New France, states, " that they had an excellent 
disposition, treated their prisoners with less cruelty than 
other nations, and had some knowledge of the existence 
of a Divinity. " These two intrepid adventurers re- 
turned to Quebec, in 1660, escorted by sixty Algonquin 
canoes and Canadian boats, laden with furs and peltries. 
They confirmed the accounts which two other French- 
men, who had gone four years before, as far as Lake 
Michigan, brought back with them, of the numerous 
tribes who wandered in those parts, and of the Kristinos, 
"whose cabins were raised high enough to enable them 
to see the Great Lakes." 

In the year 1660, Father Mesnard went mth the Al- 
gonquins to preach the Gospel to the Ottawas and other 
tribes, on the shores of Lake Superior. Fie remained 
about eight months, in a bay which he called Sainte The- 
resa, probably the bay of Kiwina, on the south side of 
the Lake, where he subsisted for some time, on acorns 
and the fruit of wild plants. Invited hence by the Hu- 
rons, he took his departure for the bay of Cha-gouia- 
migong or Saint Esprit, on the Western side of the Lake, 
whither the Iroquois did not resort, on account of the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 21 

distance and the scarcity of provisions. While Mes- 
nard's comjpagnon de voyage (fellow- traveler), was occu- 
pied in repairing the canoe, he went into the woods 
and never re-appeared. This Priest had a great reputa- 
tion amongst the savages, for the sanctity of his clerical 
office, and a few years afterward, his soutane (a garment 
worn by Priests), and his breviary were found amongst 
the " Sioux, " who preserved them as relics, and held 
them in great veneration. The Indians generally were 
remarkable for their carefulness in preserving whatever 
belonged to these faithful missionaries, for four or five 
years after the death of the Fathers Breboeuf and Gar- 
nier, whom the Iroquois assassinated, a missionary found 
in the possession of those barbarians a testament and a 
prayer-book, which had belonged to them. The old chro- 
niclers, such as Charlevoix, Champlain and others do not 
mention, that they preserved any other articles, belonging 
to the persons they murdered, but the books they had 
with them. These untutored savages regarded these 
books in the light of their better spirits, by whose direc- 
tions these missionaries had been led onward, in the paths 
of usefulness they were following. 



OHAPTEK II. 

We have thus far traced the early discoveries in the 
West, which did not at the period we mentioned (1660), 
extend beyond the hunting-grounds of the " Sioux. " 
But vague suspicions were then entertained of the extent 
of the country, or the existence of a great River in the 
West, and the accounts which they received from 
the Sioux were so uncertain, that there was little in- 



22 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

ducement for renewed exertions. However, we are 
about reaching a period (1665), when the spirit of adven- 
ture was again in the ascendant, among the old French 
Colonists of America, and when their progress in making 
discoveries in the West is to be regarded with increased 
interest. Hitherto we have been narrating the attempts 
of a few voyageurs and missionaries, to penetrate the 
depths of the American forest, and when we consider the 
almost insurmountable obstacles, which they encoun- 
tered and the melancholy fate which many of them met 
with, at the hands of their ruthless enemies, we cannot 
withhold from them our meed of praise for the magnani- 
mity they displayed and the heroism they manifested. 
But at this period, it pleased Divine Providence to bring 
other actors on the scenes, other men, who with all the 
self-devotion and courage, which were found in those 
who had preceded them, combined qualities, which suited 
them better for the task they had to perform. Previa 
ously to the year 1605, it was religious zeal, which 
prompted men to risk their lives, in exploring the wild- 
erness, the propagation of their faith, and the know- 
ledge of God, were surely objects holy enough, to engage 
their attention, but now, to these powerful motives was 
joined the love of science and the desire to enlighten 
Europeans, as to the extent of the American Continent 
and the resources and capabilities of this extensive 
country. It was in this year, that Father Allouez, a 
man who may be justly regarded as the pioneer among 
the discoverers of the West, combining great mental en- 
ergy, with a steadfastness of purpose, for which he was 
remarkable, was sent from Canada to explore the regions 
about Lake Superior. As he approached that vast In- 
land Sea, and observed the Islands which dotted its 
surface, the fertility of its shores, and the gorgeousness 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 23 

and picturesqiieness of its scenery, there was something 
in it dazzling to his imagination. He gazed with won- 
der at the numerous objects which struck his attention, 
and to a mind bent on the pursuits of science, they were 
doubly interesting. To his zeal for religion, and untir- 
ing exertions in the cause of human civilization, are we 
indebted for the first Christian chapel, which was erected 
in the solitudes of the West. After a short sojourn at 
Sainte Theresa, he arrived at Cha-gouia-migong, or Saint 
Esprit, which had been visited by Father Mesnard in 
1660. Here, in what is now known as the northern part 
of Wisconsin, at a spot which was not far from the source 
of the Mississippi, was raised the first Temple in the 
Western wilderness, in which prayers were ofiered up 
by the humble missionaries of God, to give them strength 
and confidence in their holy undertakings, and to vouch- 
safe to them His protection in the numerous trials they 
had to undergo. 

Father Allouez preached in the Algonquin language to 
twelve or fifteen tribes, who understood that idiom. His 
reputation spread abroad, and the warriors of different 
nations left their hunting grounds to visit the white man. 
The PouUouatamis^ from the borders of Lake Michigan, 
the Outagamis and the SaHs from the deserts of the 
East, the /Sluux from the West, the E/ristinas from the 
swampy forests of the North, and the Illinois of the 
Prairies, all vied with each other in their eagerness to 
see and hear the white man, to learn his discourse and 
admire his eloquence. It was on one of these occasions, 
that the Sioux informed Father Allouez, that they pro- 
tected themselves from the inclemency of the weather, by 
covering their huts with the skins of wild animals, 
and that they inhabited vast Prairies on the borders of 
a great rivei\ which they called " the Mississippi. " 



24 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

It was thus, that the French had the first idea of the ex- 
istence of a great river, the discovery of which w^as to 
immortalize Joliet and his companion. 

During the sojourn of Allouez in the country, he pur- 
sued his researclies among the Indian tribes toward 
the North, where he discovered the Nipissings, whom the 
fear of the Iroquois had driven to that distant region. 
He entered into friendly communications with them, and 
after having traveled two thousand miles, in these ex- 
tensive forests, suffering hunger, want and fatigue, he di- 
rected his steps homeward, overjoyed with the result of 
his expedition. To his discoveries, and the informa- 
tion, w^hich he imparted to the French Government, 
was the world indebted for the origin of that expedition, 
in which a French Priest and a Canadian merchant dis- 
closed to the inhabitants of Europe the existence of a 
river which to geographers had been hitherto unknown, 
and which flow^ing to the ocean, was destined to bear 
on its waters the products of a country, unecjualed on 
the face of the globe, for its richness and fertility and 
affording to the people of the old w^orld, a home and 
an asylum, where they could end their days in peace and 
happiness. 

Historians of modern times have done justice to the 
energy and activity of Joliet and Marquette, and the 
people of these Western States have erected monuments 
to their memory, and named towns and villages, in honor 
of them, but do we not see the hand of Divine Provi- 
dence pointing to the spot where was to be consumma- 
ted the regeneration of the human race, directing these 
hardy adventurers, as instruments in its service, to avail 
themselves of the time, and the occasion, w^hich w^ere 
most favorable for the accomplishment of its wise pur- 
poses : never before, had the Indian tribes been brought 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 26 

to such a state of submission to their European neigh- 
bors, as they were at that period. Even the Iroquois, 
the fiercest of all the tribes that wandered about the 
American forests, were on friendly terms with the neigh- 
boring savages, and peace and unanimity seemed to reign 
in their councils. This was a most auspicious period 
for making further discoveries, and the French Govern- 
ment took advantage of it. 

Allouez, Marquette and Dablon made themselves more 
celebrated for their scientific discoveries, than for their 
services in the cause of religion. The latter was the 
originator of an expedition in search of the Mississippi ; 
his curiosity had been excited by the glowing descriptions 
he had heard of the magnificence of the country border- 
ing on its waters, and in 1669, he resolved to undertake 
the journey. But his apostolical labors having interfered 
with the execution of his design, we hear nothing of the 
result of this expedition, excepting that he reached a tract 
of country, which was not far ofl' from the source of the 
river. 

Between 1670 and 1672, Allouez and Dablon pursued 
their journey as far as Wisconsin and the northern part 
of the State of Illinois, visiting the Mascoutins (sup- 
posed to be tire worshipers), the Kickapoos, and the 
Outagamis, on the border of Fox river, (riviere aux Ken- 
ards) which takes its source to the east of the Mississippi. 
The brave and intrepid Dablon had resolved to penetrate, 
if possible, as far as the ocean, and endeavor to seek out 
a passage to the countries beyond it. 

Hitherto, Canada had been governed by officers appoint- 
ed by the French government, under the name of Gov- 
ernors and Intendants, some of whom had accepted the of- 
fice, more from considerations of pecuniary interest, arising 
out of the profitable nature of the fur- trade, than from any 
3 



26 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

other motive ; but at this period such men as Colbert and 
Talon ruled the destinies of the New World ; they were 
men whose minds, imbued from their infancy with a love 
of science and a desire for the progress of the human race, 
who saw at once the advantages which would arise if the 
discoveries in the "West were pushed forward with energy. 
There were few men like Talon, for enterprise and activity 
of mind. Shrewd, calculating, and a close observer of 
what was occurring around him, he grasped at the idea 
of the glory which awaited him should he succeed in his 
endeavors. His administration of the government of the 
French Colonies in America would be crowned with suc- 
cess, if, while he was at the head of it, the wealth and 
commerce of his country could be increased by the dis- 
covery of the Mississippi. These were objects dear to 
his heart; but there were others which were dearer to 
him. It was the desire to extend the bounds of civiliza- 
tion, to aid in the development of the resources of this 
vast countr}^, to forward navigation, and promote the sci- 
entific knowledge of his fellow-countrymen. Under his 
administration commerce had revived, emigration had 
increased, and the Indian tribes had learned to respect 
the power and authority of the French government. 

Such was the character of the French Governor, under 
whose auspices the first expedition started from Quebec, 
which was successful in discovering the Mississippi. 
Some writers say that Marquette was the originator of 
the i^roject, others attribute it to the genius and foresight 
of Talon ; however that may be. Talon selected Joliet, a 
merchant residing in Quebec, who had previously traveled 
amongst the Ottawas, and a man of great experience, 
energy, and activity, to accompany the French missionary 
in his voyage of discovery. They left Quebec in the 
year 1673, and reached Fox river in safety. They re- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 27 

mained some time at Sainte Theresa, where they were 
received with every mark of distinction. They asked for 
two guides, and their request was readily granted. 'No 
other European had ever wandered in that direction be- 
yond the precincts of the village. On the 10th June, 
1673, they took their departure from Sainte Theresa, ac- 
companied by five other Frenchmen, and the two Indians, 
who acted as guides. They carried their bark canoes on 
their shoulders, to make the short jportage (a word in the 
French language which signifies a carrying-place) which 
separates the source of Fox river from the river Wiscon- 
sin, which flows to the west. It was at this point that 
the two guides, becoming alarmed at the danger of the 
enterprise, abandoned their fellow-travelers, and left them 
"in an unknown country in the hands of Providence," 
floating down a river, in the midst of the profound soli- 
tude which surrounded them. At the expiration of seven 
days they entered the Mississippi, of which they had 
heard so much, and such was their joy at the discovery, 
that they fell down on their knees and thanked God that 
he had brought them to their point of destination. A 
feeling of awe and solemnity came over them as they 
sailed down that majestic river, and eveiy step they took 
they were struck with the magnificence of the objects 
which surrounded them. In the midst of the silent 
forests of the New "World, with buoyant hopes, and hearts 
untrammeled by the cares and sorrows of more busy life, 
they proceeded on their journey, in the expectation of 
soon finding an outlet to the ocean. Nor were they 
greeted, at the commencement of their voyage, with 
the sight of a human being ; there was no sign of any 
habitation, nothing to indicate the probability of their 
vicinity to the abodes of man. Save the aquatic birds, 
that dipped their beaks in the waters, and the howl of 



28 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

some ferocious animal prowling for food, there was no 
indication of animal life. They had proceeded about 
sixty leagues without meeting with any person, when all 
at once they observed some footsteps on the sand, on the 
right bank of the river, and afterward a footpath, lead- 
ing to a prairie. They paused ere they incurred the risk 
of meeting with an unknown tribe in the midst of the 
forest. Yet they had a mission to fulfill, an object to 
accomplish. The pause was of short duration. Joliet 
and Marquette hazarded the interview. Taking the foot- 
path, they walked six miles, when they reached a settle- 
ment on the river Moingona, or the river des Moines of 
the French. They halted and cried out with a loud voice. 
Four old men came forth from the village, bringing with 
them the calumet of peace ; they received the strangers 
with distinction. " We are Dlinois," said they, " we are 
men, be welcome to our cabins." In the language of 
one of our most favored historians, " it was the first time 
that the soil of Iowa was trodden by the feet of white 
men." 

The Indians, w^ho had heard of the French, had long 
desired their alliance, as they knew they were the enemies 
of the Iroquois, who were about making predatory excur- 
sions in their own countr}''. The latter had inspired such 
a degree of terror in the breasts of all the Indian tribes, 
that the Illinois, like the others, courted the alliance of 
the French, who had been able to resist their aggressions 
and thwart their efforts to subdue the neighboring tribes. 
Joliet and Marquette, with their companions, having 
remained a few days the guests of this friendly people, 
and having accepted a grand feast which had been pre- 
pared for them, took their departure, very much to the 
regret of their new allies. The chief of the tribe, fol- 
lowed by several hundred warriors accompanied them to 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 29 

the river side, and as a memorial of tlieir friendship, pre- 
sented Marquette with a cahimet, ornamented with fea- 
thers of different colors, which they assured him would 
be a safe passport among all the neighboring nations. 

Our hardy adventurers proceeded on their journey, and 
arrived in a short time at the junction of the Mis- 
souri (marked on the old charts ^^ PehitanoiiV) with the 
Mississippi ; they passed the Ohio, or la helle riviere^ as 
it was afterward called by the French, the borders of 
which were then peopled by the Chouanons, or Chaunis. 
The aspect of the country was changed ; instead of ex- 
tensive prairies, they saw nothing but dense forests. 
They found also another race of men, whose language 
they were unacquainted with ; they had left the lands of 
the great Huron and Algonquin families, bounded by the 
Ohio to the north, and were now entering the hunting- 
grounds of the Mohilien tribe, of whom the Chickasaws 
formed part. The Dahcotas, or the Sioux, inhabited the 
western borders of the Mississippi. Thus the French 
required interpreters on both sides of the river, where 
two languages were spoken, differing from those of the 
Hurons and Algonquins, with whose dialects they were 
acquainted. 

They continued to descend the Mississippi, till they 
reached Arkansas river, near the 33d degree of latitude, 
a tract of country which, it is said, had been visited by 
the celebrated Spanish traveler, De Soto. The calumet, 
which had been presented to Joliet and Marquette, was 
very serviceable to them, as it w^as readily received by 
this barbarous people as an emblem of peace, and insured 
to our travelers a favorable reception wherever they went. 
The Indians sent ten men to escort them to the village of 
Arkansas, situated near the mouth of the river, where 
they were met by the chief and other warriors, who gave 



30 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

them shelter and food. What struck the attention of 
Joliet was, that they appeared to be a richer tribe than 
the others they had encountered, and that they had with 
them several implements — amongst others, steel axes, 
which they must have obtained in their forays into other 
settlements. He concluded they could not be at a very- 
great distance from the Spaniards and the Bay of Mex- 
ico. The heat of the climate afforded additional evidence 
of their being far to the southward ; they were in a country 
where abundant rains supplied the w^ant of snow, found 
in more northern latitudes. Joliet and Marquette having 
discovered that the river Mississippi did not discharge 
itself into the Pacific, but took a southerly course, and 
having been disappointed in not finding an outlet to the 
ocean, their provisions being scanty, and with few per- 
sons to prosecute their voyage, they resolved on return- 
ing and communicating to the government the result of 
their discoveries. 

They journeyed homeward by the Illinois river, and 
arrived safely at an Indian settlement, now the site of 
Chicago. In passing through this ten-itoiy, now one of 
the most populous and thriving States in the West, they 
were struck with its great natural advantages, with the 
fertility of its soil, the beauty of its scenery, and even 
with the plumage of its wild birds. Marquette, in his 
journal, which has been preserved, says, ''they discov- 
ered the most fertile country in the world, watered by 
fine rivers, woods filled with the choicest vines and apple 
trees, extensive prairies, covered with the buffalo, tlie 
deer, w41d fowl of every description, and even jparrots of 
a particular kind.''^ Such was the rhapsody in which 
this discoverer of the Mississippi indulged, in his descrip- 
tion of a country which, at the present day, seems des- 
tined to occupy the proud position of being the granary 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 31 

of America, whicli, for its agricultural capabilities and 
other resources, is the haven of hope to thousands of the 
bonded slaves of the old world, and where are the homes 
and fire-sides of the best citizens that America possesses. 

All this country was then inhabited by the Miami s, 
the Mascoutens, or fire- worshipers, the Potawatomies, 
and the Kickapoos. AUouez and Dablon had already 
visited a portion of it. On his return from the Missis- 
sippi, Marquette remained with the Miamies, to the north 
of the river Illinois. Joliet proceeded immediately to 
Quebec, to communicate the intelligence of the discovery 
to Talon, who, he found, had gone to France. Marquette 
remained two years amongst the Miamies, and in the year 
1675 took his departure for Mackinaw, at the head of Lake 
Michigan. On the journey, he disembarked from his 
canoe at the outlet of a small river, on the eastern side 
of the Lake, for the purpose of raising an altar and cele- 
brating mass, after which, having requested his compan- 
ions to wait for him a few minutes, they retired to a place 
at a short distance from him, and on their return they 
found him dead. 

Like Mesnard and others who had preceded him, the 
discoverer of the Mississippi found his grave in the wilds 
of the West. He was buried in silence at the outskirts 
of a forest, near to the spot where he met with his death. 

History does not mention that France rewarded the 
exertions of its adventurous colonists by any signal mark 
of distinction. Joliet and his companions were suflfered 
to remain in obscurity, but if their own country neglected 
its faithful servants, the people of America have erected 
monuments to their memory in the magnificent cities, 
towns, and villages which they have dotted over the 
surface of the country they discovered. Their works of 
art and their progress in science will forever distinguish 



32 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

that section of America, the early discovery of which 
was owing to the zeal of a French missionary and the 
intrepidity of a Canadian merchant. 

The news of the discovery of the Mississippi created 
a great sensation in the colony. The boundaries of the 
American continent, comprising snch a vast extent of 
country, were then known to extend toward the sea, and 
although they were satisfied as to the course which the 
Mississippi took, they did not doubt that they should find 
the ocean to the westward of the territories they had 
discovered . These researches had contributed to the glory 
of France ; they had added luster to the events of the 
reign of Louis the Fourteenth ; the cause of science had 
been greatly promoted by the exertions of its navigators ; 
further scope had been afforded to the studies of its geo- 
graphers and naturalists, yet the discoveries were not 
complete. Until they had traced the course of the Mis- 
sissippi, and had re-commenced the voyage at the point 
where Joliet and Marquette abandoned it, and were satis- 
fied that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, 
it could not be said that they had completed their task, 
in the exploration of the great American continent. 



CHAPTEE III. 



In the year 1667, there emigrated from France to 
Canada, a young man by the name of Eobert Cavalier 
de La Salle; ambitious, intrepid and daring, he came to 
New France with a two-fold object in view, that of mak- 
ing a fortune and acquiring a brilliant reputation. He 
had been educated by the Jesuits, under whose care he 
had been placed from his infancy. Brought up to that 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. " 33 

life of austerity and self-denial which was practiced by 
that religious order ; having all the enthusiasm and cour- 
ageousness for which they were remarkable, he wanted 
only the opportunity to distinguish himself, and to prove 
to the world the indomitable courage with which he was 
possessed. With a cultivated mind and enlarged ideas, 
having a perfect knowledge of human nature, and being 
acquainted with the character, object, and pursuits of the 
Indian tribes in alliance with France, La Salle was well 
qualified for the performance of the most arduous duty. 
He listened with attention to Joliet's account of his expe- 
dition to the Mississippi; his mind was entranced at the 
glowing descriptions of that traveler ; his heart rebounded 
with joy at the prospect of the glory which awaited him ; 
with the glance of an eye, he observed the immense field 
which should occupy his future labors; his plans were 
already formed, that project, on the success of which, he 
based his ideas of fortune and future reputation, and 
which he pursued with such indomitable energy and such 
incredible perseverance, even to the day of his death. 

He had come to Canada with the intention of making 
discoveries in the north or west, and endeavoring to find 
out a passage to Japan or China, but being poor, and 
this enterprise requiring considerable means to enable 
any person to undertake it, he remained for several years 
in a state of obscurity. At length his talents and energy 
struck the attention of the Count de Frontenac, and a 
new era was dawning upon him. 

Encouraged by Courcelles and Talon, on his arrival in 
Canada, he had established a small ofiice {comptoir^ 
where he dealt with the Indians, at a place situated about 
eight miles from Montreal, to which, it is supposed, the 
name of La Cliine was given, in satirical allusion to the 
folly of his undertaking to discover a north-west passage 



34: HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

to China. AYhen the news of the discovery of the Mis- 
sissippi reached Canada, La Salle was, as before men- 
tioned, at Quebec. Availing himself of the excited state 
of the public mind, caused by this event, he communi- 
cated his plan to the Count de Frontenac. He flattered 
himself, that in proceeding toward the source of the 
newly-discovered river, he might find a passage to the 
ocean; at all events, the discovery of the outlet of the 
Mississippi would not be attended without glory and 
advantage to him. Desirous of availing himself, at the 
same time, of the opportunity it would afibrd him to 
extend his commercial engagements, he wished to become 
possessed of Fort Frontenac, an important place of busi- 
ness in carrying on the fur trade. Strongly recommended 
by his protector, the Count de Frontenac, he went to 
France: the Marquis de Seignelay, who had replaced his 
father, the great Colbert, as Minister of the Marine, 
received him well, and granted him all he desired. The 
king of France conferred on him a patent of nobility, 
conceded to him Fort Frontenac, on condition that he 
should rebuild it in stone, and gave him permission to 
carr}^ on his commercial pursuits, and continue the dis- 
coveries which had been already commenced. This con- 
cession was equivalent to an exclusive grant to trade 
with the Five Nations, and it was highly advantageous 
to La Salle. 

On the 14th of July, 1678, La Salle, animated with 
lively hopes, and his heart filled with joy, took his depar- 
ture from Eochelle, in France, bringing with him thirty 
men, mariners and workmen, anchors, sails, and other 
equipments for the vessels which he intended to build 
to navigate the Lakes. On his arrival at Quebec, he left 
without loss of time for Cataraqui (now Kingston, in 
Canada West), taking goods with him to traffic with the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 35 

Indians. He displayed his usual energy in preparing 
Lis outfit. As early as the 18th November, but four 
months since his departure from France, the first sloop 
which was ever seen on Lake Ontario, sailed out of the 
harbor of Cataraqui, with its sails spread to the breeze, 
laden with merchandise and the necessary materials to 
construct a fort and a vessel of larger size at Niagara, 
where he intended to establish another trading-post for 
trafficking with the Indians. 

This first voyage on the w^aters of Lake Ontario was 
attended with success. When they arrived at the head 
of the Lake, the Indians were struck with astonishment 
at the appearance of the vessel ; they gazed with admi- 
ration at its structure, its equipments, and the skillful 
manner in which it w^as navigated. Great as was their 
astonishment, it did not surpass that of the Europeans at 
the sight of the stupendous cataract of Niagara ; they 
had heard from a distance the sound of its waters, rush- 
ing over a precipice of one hundred and sixty feet in 
height, and as they approached the falls, they realized 
what they had never pictured in their imagination ; they 
gazed with wonder at the sight of a river rushing over 
such a precipice into the foaming abyss below, and they 
were startled at the view of this new feature in the 
scenery of the great Western World. 

La Salle caused the cargo of the sloop to be disem- 
barked and transported to the head of Lake Erie, where 
he commenced the construction of a fort and a vessel. 
But while the savages observed the progi^ess of the fort 
toward its completion, they began to fear and to murmur. 
In order not to excite the hatred of these barbarians, La 
Salle contented himself with converting it into a dwell- 
ing, surrounded by simple palisades, which he intended 
to use for a store. In the winter, a workhouse was 



36 HISTORY OP THE VALLEY 

erected at some distance above the falls, for the purpose 
of enabling him to complete the vessel of sixty tons, 
which he was about building. This work was executed 
under the immediate superintendence of the Chevalier 
de Tonti, and as this nobleman was the first architect of 
a vessel to ply on the waters of Lake Erie, his name and 
services should not be forgotten. He had been recom- 
mend to La Salle by the Prince de Condi, an Italian by 
birth ; he had in his youth engaged in the Sicilian wars, 
and had the misfortune to lose one of his hands from the 
bursting of a shell, which he supplied by an iron hand, 
which he usually covered with a glove. From this cir- 
cumstance, the savages feared him a great deal, and gave 
him the appellation of the L'on-armed De Tonti. He 
was very useful to La Salle, to whom he was always sin- 
cerely attached. There was a work published under his 
name, on the history of Louisiana, which he afterward 
disavowed. 

The activity of La Salle increased as the realization 
of his designs became the more probable. In the winter 
he sent De Tonti and the Franciscan Hennepin, since 
celebrated for the publication of his travels in America, 
as an embassy to the Iroquois, whom he wished to enlist 
in favor of his enterprise; he himself afterward visited 
them, as well as many other nations, with whom he 
i wished to establish commercial relations. 
I La Salle was the first European who founded Niagara, 
and built a vessel on Lake Erie. He called it the " Grif- 
fon," after the name of a ravenous wild bird, common in 
that country. The vessel was launched in the river Niag- 
ara, in the year 1679, in the midst of general rejoicings 
amongst the French, the discharge of artillery, and the 
singing of the Te Dewn^ — not however without the 
expression of the superstitious belief of the savages, who, 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 37 

on seeing the vessel sailing on the water, exclaimed, 
" Otkon^'' " Otkon^'' significant of their astonishment at 
what the French could do, and implying that they were 
"extraordinary spirits." 

On the seventh of August of the same year, the Grif- 
fon, armed with seven pieces of artillery, laden with 
arms, food, and merchandise, and carrying thirty-two 
men and two missionaries, entered Lake Erie in the midst 
of the thunder of the artillery and musketry, the sound 
of which was re-echoed back from the long ranges of 
forest on the borders of the Lake. La Salle, triumphing 
over the envy of his enemies and the almost insurmount- 
able obstacles to his enterprise, arrived safely, after a few 
days' passage, at Detroit, the sight of which was pleas- 
ing to his companions. They were delighted with the 
appearance of the country, and stood for hours admir- 
ing the beauty of the scenery in this favorite locality. 
"Those," says Hennepin, " who will have the happiness 
to possess at a future day, the lands of this agreeable and 
fertile country, will be under lasting obligations to those 
travelers who first showed them the way and crossed over 
Lake Erie, after a hundred leagues of dangerous naviga- 
tion." The words of this intelligent traveler have be- 
come true; the people of America owe a debt of the 
deepest gratitude to all who were instrumental in discov- 
ering this fertile country, and rescuing it from the abori- 
ginal tribes who first occupied it. The normal occupiers 
of the soil were at first repulsed by the genius and the 
energy of their Erench invaders ; it was afterward left to 
the valor and achievements of American soldiers to expel 
them from their strongholds, in order to make way for 
that progressive civilization which Providence had or- 
dained should take place in the wilds of the west. 

On the 23d of August, La Salle, after passing through 



38 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

a small lake, opposite Detroit, to which he gave the name 
of St. Clair, entered Lake Huron and arrived in five days 
at Michilimackinac, having been exposed to a violent 
hurricane on the voyage. On his arrival at this trading- 
post, the Indians ran away from fright, on seeing the 
vessel on the water, carrying its large white sails, and 
approaching toward them ; when they heard the noise of 
the cannon, it was with difficulty they could be restrained 
from launching forth into the most violent expressions of 
terror and consternation. 

The French chief, dressed in a scarlet mantle, orna- 
mented with gold lace, and followed by a guard of armed 
men, disembarked from the Griffon, to hear high mass 
celebrated in the chapel of the Ottawas ; he was received 
with every mark of distinction, and the Indians, in a 
short time, became reconciled to the strangers, and joined 
in rendering them homage. 

The Grifibn proceeded on its voyage, and in the early 
part of the month of September, cast anchor in the Bay 
des Puans^ on the western shore of Lake Michigan. 
This was tlie destination of the travelers, so far as they 
could proceed by water, and make use of their vessel. 
La Salle had come to this trading-post to collect the furs 
which had been brought here from the interior, and hav- 
ing laden the Griffon with them, he dispatched her for 
Niagara, Avith the ''richest cargo that had yet been borne 
on the waters of Lake Erie." The Griffon sailed on the 
18th of September, and was never afterward heard of. 
The loss amounted to not less than fifty or sixty thousand 
francs, and was seriously felt by La Salle, who had intend- 
ed to dispose of these furs and discharge his pecuniary 
obligations in Canada. 

La Salle, after the departure of his vessel, continued 
his route as far as the village of Saint Joseph, on the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 39 

borders of LaKe Michigan, whither, according to his 
directions, the Griffon was to return, after its arrival from 
Niagara. He was accompanied by several men of differ- 
ent trades, with arms and merchandise. Having reached 
this village, he erected a house and fort in its neighbor- 
hood, for the safety of his effects, and also to serve as a 
retreat for his men. He gave it the name of Fort Miami. 
This fortification was raised on the summit of a hill in 
the form of a triangle, watered on two sides by a river 
known as the Miami,* and defended on the other by a 
deep ravine. He carefully surveyed the entry of the river, 
in the expectation of the return of his vessel, on the safety 
of which, depended in a great measure, the success of his 
enterprise and the probability of his speedily entering on 
the prosecution of his discoveries. He sent two experi- 
enced men to Michilimackinac to pilot it up the Lake, but 
having waited a considerable time, and hearing no ac- 
counts, he began to apprehend that some accident had 
happened to her. Although he was disconcerted at this 
unexpected delay, the winter being near at hand, he re- 
solved on making an excursion amongst the Illinois, and 
leaving ten men to guard the fort, he left, accompanied by 
De Tonti, Hennepin, with two missionaries, and about 
thirty followers. He followed the course of the river 
known then as the Miami, and after considerable fatigue 
and danger, arrived, toward the end of December, in an 
Indian village situated on the borders of the river Illinois, 
in that section of country, which at the present day, bears 
that name. The tribe was absent on the hison chase, and 
the village completely deserted. 



* There were several small streams, marked on the old Charts, to which 
che name of Miami was given. The writer believes this to have been 
che river Chicago. 



40 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

The French descended the river and did not meet with 
the Illinois Indians, until they arrived at Lake Peoria, 
called Piiniteoni by Hennepin, where there was a nu- 
merous assemblage of them. These savages, being of a 
quiet and peaceable disposition, received them with gener- 
ous hospitality and rubbed their legs (according to the 
custom of the tribe, with strangers who had come from a 
distance) with bear's grease and the grease of wild bulls, 
which they considered had a wonderful effect in restoring 
activity to limbs that had become torpid, from a long 
march in the forest. La Salle made them presents and 
contracted a friendly alliance with them. It was, with 
great pleasure, that that nation understood, that the 
French had come to establish colonies in their territory. 
Like the Hurons, they were exposed to the invasions of 
the Iroquois ; the French would therefore be powerful 
allies, to resist with them the encroachments of their artful 
and relentless enemies, while in their turn, La Salle 
could reckon on them as his best and most faithful friends. 
Thus an alliance was proposed and accepted between 
these untutored savages and their European brethren, 
which had the most salutary consequences, and was as 
lasting as any which they were able to contract with these 
roving savages, in the American forest. The Illinois 
made their cabins in a peculiar manner ; they were con- 
structed of the bark of trees, doubled and sewed together 
to make them more durable. They were of large stature, 
strong, robust, skillful in the use of the bow and arrow, 
but some French writers represent them as a wandering, 
idle people, having no courage, guided by no moral re- 
straints, and without any respect for their chiefs. They 
were not acquainted with the use of fire-arms when the 
French first came amongst them. 

Already, La Salle's men began to murmur, and said, 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 41 

that as they had heard no news of the Griffon, that vessel 
must have been lost ; many of them became discouraged, 
and six deserted during the night. His undertaking, 
which, at the commencement, was begun under such fa- 
vorable auspices, was now threatened with an untoward 
result. What was he to do ? For some time he had met 
with almost insurmountable obstacles, his men were de- 
serting him, and others who remained, were only induced 
to do so by the promise of their return to Canada, in the 
spring, should circumstances not be more favorable to 
them. In this emergency, and in order to occupy the 
minds of the men and arouse them from the state of 
lethargy into which they had thrown themselves, he 
resolved on employing them in the erection of a fort, on 
a height of land which he found at a short distance from 
the Lake, and which he named Fort " Crevecoeur," or 
the Fort of the Broken-heart, to indicate his evil destiny, 
and the anguish and remorse under which his mind la- 
bored. There is a spot which bears also this name, in 
the State of Missouri ; it may have probably been the 
scene of other disasters to some of these hardy adven- 
turers, for if they did not leave their bones to bleach on 
the sands of the forest, at least many of them returned 
broken-hearted to their homes, after havino; endured all 
the pangs of want and misery, within the recesses of this 
newly-discovered country. 

La Salle gave orders for the construction of a boat to 
descend the Mississippi, and while the men were occu- 
pied in completing these works, becoming impatient at 
hearing no news of the Griffon, and being in want of 
materials to construct his boat, he adopted the almost 
desperate resolution of returning on foot to Fort Frontenac, 
a distance of twelve or fifteen hundred miles, in order to 
procure the means of prosecuting his voyage. Before his 
4 



4:2 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

departure, he instructed Hennepin, when he reached the 
Mississippi, to ascend that river as high as possible, 
toward its source, and examine the tract of country to 
the North, and after having given the command of the 
fort to De Tonti, he himself commenced his long journey 
for Cataraqui, on the second of March, 1680, armed with 
a musket, and accompanied by four Frenchmen and an 
Indian.* 

Hennepin had left Fort Crevecoeur on the 29th of 
February ; he descended the Elinois river as far as the 
Mississippi, traveled about the country, and afterward 
ascended the river as high as the Falls of Saint Anthony, 
and fell into the hands of the Sioux. During his captivity, 
these barbarians amused themselves in making him write 
several words of their language, which he had begun to 
study. They said it was only putting hlach uj^on vjhite^ 
and when they saw him consult the vocabulary, wdiich he 
had written of the terms of their peculiar language, they 
remarked amongst themselves, " that lohite thing must 
he a spirit, as it teaches him to understand all that we 
say.'''' It is a singular fact, but one which w^e see recorded 
on the pages of almost every work on the aboriginal tribes 
of America, that whatever appeared to them as out of 
the ordinary course of things, they immediately attributed 
it to the agency of a spirit, thus testifying to their belief 



* Charlevoix, in following the description given under the name of De 
Tonti, has fallen into several errors i-especting La Salle's expedition to 
the river Illinois, which may be easily detected. Hennepin, an ocular 
witness, is the best authority in these matters, corroborated, as many of 
his statements are, by the letters and relations of Father Zenobe Mambre. 
See his " Premier etablissement de la Foi dans la nouvelle France." 
Many English writers, who follow Charlevoix, have been incorrect in their 
descriptions of this voyage. The description as given in the text, 
approaches nearest toward the correct one. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 43 

in supernatural agency, and possibly, as some may sup- 
pose, in the existence of a Divinity. 

At the expiration of several months, the savages per- 
mitted the three French captives to return amongst their 
companions, after exacting a promise from them that they 
should come back the following year. One of the chiefs 
traced the route which they should follow, on a piece 
of bark ; and this map, says Hennepin, was as useful to 
them, as if they had had a compass to guide them in their 
travels. They reached the mission at Lake Michigan by 
the river Wisconsin, which flows into the Mississippi and 
Fox river, which runs to the eastward. 

Such was the expedition of Hennepin, who w^as the first 
traveler who ventured as high up the river as the Falls 
of Saint Anthony, and was the first to discover that the 
Missouri was a large river, running through that tract of 
country which now bears its name. On his return, as he 
approached the river Wisconsin w^here it joins the Mis- 
sissippi, he was astonished to meet with a number of 
traders, conducted by a man of the name of De Luth, who 
had been traveling for some time in that distant region. 



CHAPTER lY. 

While Hennepin was exploring the Upper Mississippi, 
La Salle's afiairs grew worse at Crevecoeur, where De 
Tonti was in command. But in order to understand the 
nature of the difficulties which surrounded him, and the 
almost insurmountable obstacles he had to contend with, 
we must take a glance at his position in Canada, where 
his enemies were at work to undermine his projects. 

Some English writers, in describing La Salle's charac- 
ter, have been guilty of imputing the most sordid motives 



44: HISTORY OF THE T ALLEY 

to him in prosecuting his discoveries, but cotemporaneous 
French ^\Titers have done justice to him, in believing that 
he was actuated by a love of science, and a desire to 
promote the amelioration of his race. On his arrival in 
Canada, as I have already remarked, without fortune, but 
with great ambition, and the strongest recommendations 
to persons in authority, whose friendship he cultivated, 
he very soon became an object of special favor with many 
who were acquainted with him, while his projects, con- 
nected with the discovery and colonization of the country, 
being looked upon with disfavor by others, and especially 
by the traders {traitans)^ excited their envy and jealousy. 
They thought that the exclusive grant which La Salle 
had obtained from the Count de Frontenac, would interfere 
with their business, and prevent them from trading in 
furs in the West, and they availed themselves of every 
occasion that presented itself, to thwart his projects. 
There were two classes of persons whose enmity he had 
incurred, the merchants and the coureurs de hois^ or small 
traders, who traveled in the woods to deal with the 
Indians. While he was at Crevecoeur, on the Illinois, 
awaiting news of the safe arrival of the Grifibn, his 
creditors in Cataraqui seized every thing he had left 
behind him, in payment of his debts, and thus injured 
his credit with those persons, who might have been of 
service to him, aiM on the other hand, the coureurs de 
hois, or small traders, were doing everything in their 
power to predispose the savages against him, and to induce 
his men to desert from his employment, so that his enter- 
prise might fail.* They excited the Iroquois and Miamies 

* From the works of Le Clerc and Zenobe Mambre, two French authors 
of that period. 

" This enterprise, which ought to have been sustained by all those 
persons who were inclined to act for the glory of God, and the service of 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 45 

to take up arms against the Illinois, his allies, and lost no 
opportunity to injure him in the estimation of the other 
tribes. Nothing could equal the activity of these traders ; 
they hated La Salle in consequence of the monopoly of 
the fur trade, which the Count de Frontenac had granted 
to him, and were determined, if possible, to drive him out 
of the country. They were constantly at his heels, or to 
use the language of the old French writers. Us le suivaient 
a la jpiste^ they secretly insinuated to the savages the most 
serious charges against him, and interposed every obstacle 
against the accomplishment of his designs. To this 
opposition in the interior of the country, were united the 
intrigues of the English, who were beginning to regard, 
with a jealous eye, the discoveries and spirit of aggran- 
dizement of the French in the West ; they therefore sent 
secret embassies to encourage the Ii'oquois to declare war 
against their French allies, in the valley of the Mississippi. 
Such w^ere the disadvantages under which La Salle 
labored ; and it is not surprising, that having to contend 
against such numerous and powerful foes, he was unable 
to execute but a part of the plans he had at first contem- 
plated ; it was quite enough to be obliged to overcome 
the obstacles which everywhere surrounded him in 
pushing his discoveries in the "West ; he was totally unpre- 



the King, was almost frustrated by the bad feelings which they had 
created in the minds of the Hurons, the Ottawas of the Isles, and neigh- 
boring nations, with whom La Salle had dealings. He found the fifteen 
men, whom he had sent in the spring of 1679, to Crevecceur, predisposed 
against him and seduced from his service ; a part of his property was 
dissipated, and De Tonti, far from being able to deal satisfactorily with 
the neighboring tribes, was very much inclined to doubt their fidelity." 
Other writers give different versions of De Tonti's conduct, but how- 
ever their statements may differ, there can be no doubt that La Salle's 
affairs at Crevecceur were, at this period, far from being iu a satisfactory 
condition. 



46 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

pared for the opposition he met with in a quarter where 
he least expected it. 

However, De Tonti, who had been placed in charge of 
Fort Crevecceur, lost no time in visiting the encampment 
of the Illinois, and assuring himself of their friendly- 
assistance. Having been informed that the Iroquois 
wished to join the Miamies in an attack on them, he 
hastened to instruct his new allies in the use of fire-arms, 
so that they might be on a footing of equality with these 
nations, amongst whom musketry had been lately intro- 
duced. He also showed them the manner of fortifying 
their position, by erecting palisades, and built a fort on a 
rock, two hundred feet in height, protected by a river at 
its base. He was occupied with these labors, when nearly- 
all the men, whom he had left at Fort Crevecceur, becom- 
ing disheartened at the unfavorable turn which matters 
had taken, robbed the ammunitions and stores and deserted. 

There was no longer room for doubt. La Salle's enemies 
had succeeded in arming the Five Nations, who appeared 
on a sudden, in the month of September, 1680, in the 
territory occupied by the Illinois, and threw that weak and 
peaceful people into the greatest consternation. This 
invasion exposed the French to considerable danger. De 
Tonti hastened to interfere, and a truce was efiected, but 
the L'oquois, observing the fear into which they had 
thrown the Illinois, did not allow it to be of long duration ; 
they committed the most frightful ravages, dug up their 
dead, devastated their fields, and destroyed their habita- 
tions. The Illinois retreated beyond the Mississippi, 
roamed over the forest in scattered bands, in order to evade 
the vigilance of the Iroquois, and left the French in the 
midst of their enemies. De Tonti, having with him but 
five men and two Recollets,* resolved to abandon the 

* An order of Priesthood. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 47 

country. The remnants of this small colony left Fort 
Crevecoeur in a bark canoe, without provisions, and 
depending on the chase for food during their journey 
homeward. 

"While they were descending the north side of Lake 
Michigan, La Salle was proceeding along the south shore, 
with a reinforcement of men, and materials for the con- 
struction of his vessel. He therefore found no person at 
the fort, which he had established on the river Illinois. 
This made him lose another year, which he spent in 
traveling amongst the neighboring tribes ; he visited a 
great number of the savages, amongst others, the Outaga- 
mies, and the Miamies, whom he succeeded in drawing 
away from their alliance with the Five Nations, who, it 
seems, after the departure of De Tonti, had driven a part 
of the Elinois Indians amongst the Osage tribe, beyond 
the Mississippi. He afterward returned to Cataraqui and 
Montreal, to put his affairs in order, which needed all his 
attention. He had suffered considerable losses.* How- 
ever, he succeeded in making a settlement with his 
creditors, to whom he gave permission to carry on trade 
in those immense possessions which had been granted to 
him by the Count de Frontenac, and received from them, 

* A vessel laden with twenty-two thousand livres' worth of goods 
suffered shipwreck in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence ; several bark canoes 
ascending the Saint Lawrence from Montreal to Fort Frontenac, were lost 
in the rapids. He said, that with the exception of the Count de Fronte- 
nac, it seemed to him that all Canada had conspired against his enterprise ; 
that they had seduced his men whom he had brought with him from 
France, of whom part had run away from him with his goods through 
New Holland, and that with regard to the Canadians who had come with 
him, that they had found means to disgust them, and detach them from 
his service. " In all his misfortunes," says a missionary, " I have never 
remarked in him the slightest change, always appearing perfectly calm 
and self-possessed, and I observed, he was more resolved than ever, to 
continue his work and prosecute his discoveries." 



48 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

in return, forth er advances to prosecute his discoveries. 
He abandoned the extensive plan he had projected of 
establishing forts and colonies, at the different points on 
his route toward the sea. Apprehensive of further em- 
barrassments, he even gave up the idea of constructing a 
vessel, and availed himself of the Indian bark canoes to 
proceed on his voyage. 

He took his departure, accompanied by De Tonti, and 
Father Mambre, twenty-four Frenchmen, and eighteen 
savages of the Wolf and Abenaquis tribes, the bravest in 
America, and reached the Mississippi on the 6th of Feb- 
ruary, 1682. 

Like Marquette, he followed the course of the great 
river, without stopping to survey the adjoining country. 
He was enchanted with the mildness of the climate, and 
the beauty of the scenery along the shores of the Missis- 
sippi ; that feeling of sadness which had before subdued 
him, gradually wore off, and, as his prospects became 
brighter, his ideas of fortune and future greatness again 
returned to him. He saw the Arkansas and other tribes, 
visited by Marquette ; and as he drew near the South, met 
with a number of other nations, such as the Chickasaws, 
the Taensas, the Choctaws, and the Xatchez, rendered 
so celebrated by the writings of Chateaubriand, and other 
travelers. Being obliged to stop several times, he did 
not arrive at the outlet of the river until the 9th of April, 
when he first saw the ocean spreading its wide waters 
around that beautiful country, rendered so pleasing by 
its warm, tropical climate. Like Marquette, and the 
other travelers w^ho had preceded him, he gave vent to 
the liveliest feelings of emotion; a cry of enthusiasm 
and of triumph was wrung from his heart ; at length he 
had reached the point of his destination ; the object of his 
most anxious desires for years had been attained ; he stood 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 49 

on that soil which he claimed as a noble conquest for his 
country. He solemnly took possession of that part of 
the valley of the Mississippi for France, and gave it the 
name of Louisiana, in honor of Louis the Fourteenth, of 
which New Orleans, the capital, was founded by one of 
the countrymen of La Salle. 

Thus the discovery of the Mississippi was completed 
by the French from the Falls of Saint Anthony to the 
sea, a distance of more than eighteen hundred miles. 

La Salle then retraced his steps, and dispatched Mam- 
bre to France, to render an account to the king of the 
result of the voyage. This Franciscan monk embarked 
on board of a vessel which had been sent from France 
to Canada to bring back the Count de Frontenac, and 
which sailed from Quebec on the 17th of November. La 
Salle himself remained the following summer and winter 
among the Illinois, and in the vicinity of Lake Michigan, 
to form new establishments and trade with the Indians. 
Having afterward heard of the evil disposition toward 
him of the new Governor, M. de la Barre, he resolved to 
go to France to counteract the effects of the report which 
that functionary had sent to the government, relative to 
his discoveries in the West. De la Barre had wiitten to 
the ministry that it was owing to the imprudence of La 
Salle that war had been declared by the Five Nations 
against the French, and that the colony might be at- 
tacked before he had time to place it in a state of defense. 
He wrote again, after the discovery of the outlet of the 
Mississippi, that Mambre, who had just arrived in Que- 
bec to go to Europe, would not communicate anything to 
him about La Salle's expedition ; that he did not believe 
that much faith could be attached to what the Franciscan 
said, and that La Salle himself appeared to have ulterior 
designs in view, which could not meet with their ap- 
5 



60 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

proval ; that he was in the vicinity of the bay of Lake 
Michigan, with about twenty vagabonds, French and 
savages, where he set his sovereign at defiance, pillaged 
and robbed the people of his nation, exposed them to the 
incursions of the Iroquois, and made use of all this vio- 
lence under the pretext that he alone was entitled to the 
right to trade with the Indians in the countries which he 
had discovered. 

From these false representations, made by the Gov- 
ernor to the French ministry, followed by the seizure of 
Forts Frontenac and St. Louis in Illinois, La Salle left 
Quebec in the month of November, 1683, to repair to 
France, for the purpose of laying his case before the 
French ministry, and proving his fidelity to the crown. 

La Salle's arrival in France w^as most opportune. It 
was at the period when Louis the Fourteenth was at the 
height of his glory, and was acknowledged as the most 
powerful prince in Christendom. The conqueror of com- 
bined Europe, he had dictated terms to the vanquished 
at the Congress of Nimegue, in 1678. Everything seemed 
to favor the designs of this ambitious monarch. The 
discovery of the Mississippi lent additional interest to the 
events of his reign ; and while he rejoiced at the glory 
which he had acquired in arms, he was not insensible to 
that which he had gained as being the monarch under 
whose reign La Salle had been able to do so much for the 
promotion of science. It was not, therefore, surprising 
that La Salle's enemies were thwarted in their designs to 
injure him, and that he himself was received with great 
favor by his sovereign, as being the discoverer of the 
outlet of the Mississippi, and the one who had procured 
for him this new acquisition of territory. 

Although Colbert had descended to the grave, the im- 
pulse which he had given to commerce, to industry, and 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 61 

colonization, had survived him, and the French people 
learned with a feeling of pride of the extension of territory 
in the interior of America. M. de Seignelai (Colbert's 
successor), after having held a conference with our trav- 
eler, w^hom he heard with a great deal of interest, per- 
ceived that M. de la Barre had been led into error. He 
could refuse nothing to La Salle, who had endowed 
France with one of the finest countries in the world, and 
the king, as well as the minister, gave him permission to 
establish colonies in America. Appreciating these marks 
of favor on the part of his sovereign, and sensible how 
much they would tend to dispel the prejudice existing 
against him elsewhere, he set about making preparations 
for a new enterprise, in which he had already secured the 
favorable co-operation of government. 

Ferdinand de Soto, the associate of Pizarro, whose 
name has become renowned in the history of Spain, had 
done nothing more in 1539 and '40 than travel over the 
interior of the country from Florida to Arkansas. The 
object of his expedition was to ascertain whether there 
existed any gold or silver mines in that section of Amer- 
ica, and having failed to discover any, he was about re- 
turning when he met with his death at Ked river, in the 
year 1512. Moscosa, his lieutenant, replaced him, and 
marched with three hundred and fifty men toward the 
west ; but on his reaching the mountains he changed his 
course to the south, and embarked on board of a vessel 
to return to his country. IN'either De Soto nor Moscosa 
had visited the country w^ith a view to its colonization ; 
and there is nothing but vague traditions existing of 
their travels in the southern part of this continent. There 
is a work in the Spanish language, written by Garcilasso 
de la Yega, of which a translation has been made by R. 
Richelet, entitled, " History of the Conquest of Florida, 



52 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

by Ferdinand de Soto ;" but it contains no information 
of the existence of any colony established by the Span- 
iards in the valley of the Mississippi.* 



CHAPTEK Y. 

We have seen the favorable reception which Louis the 
Fourteenth gave La Salle, when, in 1683, he informed 
him that he had lately acquired such a vast accession of 
territory on the American Continent. There were no 
favors which that proud and ambitious monarch did not 
lavish on the discoverer of the outlet of the Mississippi. 
He was received at court with all the honors paid to the 
princes and nobles of the land, his name was on every 
one's lips, and there was no praise which he did not re- 
ceive. It must have been gratifying to La Salle, when 
he remembered the misfortunes of his early days, and all 
the trials he had gone through, and when he recalled to 
mind the aspersions of his enemies, to find himself the 
recipient of royal favors, and the object of the benevolence 
of that monarch under whose auspices he had first com- 
menced his undertaking. He proposed to Louis the Four- 
teenth to unite Canada with the country on the borders 
of the Gulf of Mexico, and to extend his sovereignty 
from the shores of the Saint Lawrence to the outlet of 

* This work was in the library of the Legislative Assembly in Canada, 
which was destroyed by fire in tlie month of April, 1849. With the ex- 
ception of Zenobe Mambre's work, all the works herein mentioned were 
found in that collection. The destruction of that library, unequaled by 
any on this continent, — and, as regards its works on American History, 
by any throughout the world, — was an event which will forever be de- 
plored. The collector of the works, a gentleman of distinguished literary 
attainments, had visited every book-mart in Europe to attain the object 
he had in view. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 63 

the Mississippi. This project was readily countenanced 
by the king, and he gave La Salle instructions to proceed 
immediately to colonize Louisiana. Four vessels were 
23laced at his disposal ; the Jolly carrying thirty-six can- 
nons ; the Belle^ six cannons ; the Aimable^ a vessel of 
three hundred tons, and a transport. Two hundred and 
eighty persons embarked on board these vessels, amongst 
whom there were a hundred soldiers, mechanics, volun- 
teers, and eight missionaries. 

On the 24th July, 1684, this little squadron, under the 
command of M. de Beaujeu, left Rochelle, in France, on 
its voyage of discovery. Scarcely had they set sail, when 
a misunderstanding arose between De Beaujeu and La 
Salle. This gave rise, as it would appear, to a lengthened 
controversy, in which both parties appealed to the French 
ministry. Mr. Sparks, in the 11th volume of his valua- 
ble work on American biography, has given the substance 
of De Beaujeu's letter to the authorities in France, but as 
the details of this quarrel would be uninteresting, they 
are here passed over. 

In consequence of these misunderstandings, it seems, 
they committed an error in navigating the vessels, and 
went out of the proper course; instead of being at the 
east, they were far to the west of the outlet of the Missis- 
sippi, and on the 14th of February, 1685, landed in St. 
Bernard's Bay, now called Matao:orda, in Texas, at a dis- 
tance of a hundred and twenty leagues from the river they 
were in search of. To add to La Salle's difficulties, the 
commander of the Aimahle^ on entering the bay, struck 
his vessel on a rock, some authors say designedly,* others 
accidentally. However this may be, the Aimable was 
shipwrecked and the whole cargo was lost, and La Salle 

*Joutel, JOURNAL HISTORIQUK DU DERNIEE VOYAGE DE FEU M. DE LA SaLLE 

IN 12mo., Paris, 17J3. 



54 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

was deprived of tlie use of nearly all his munitions of 
war, mechanical implements, and other articles which were 
necessary to commence operations for the establishment 
of a colony in an uncultivated and distant country. De 
Beaujeu, instead of punishing the commander, received 
him on board of his ship, to protect him from La Salle's 
vengeance. There seemed to be a fatality attending this 
enterprise from its commencement to its termination. De 
la Barrels opposition to it, followed by the confiscation of 
La Salle's property, the aspersions cast on his character, 
and the injury that was attempted to be done to him in 
France, all was discouraging to him, and when to this 
was added the conduct of De Beaujeu toward him, it cer- 
tainly appeared as if the fates were against the successful 
completion of his projects. De Beaujeu endeavored to 
aggravate the hardships of La Salle's condition; he re- 
fused him all succor or assistance ; he would not give him 
any of the materials that were on board his vessel to re- 
place those which had been lost ; and on the 14th of March, 
1685, finally abandoned the young colony, consisting of 
one hundred and eighty persons, on an inhospitable shore, 
in a distant country, suiTOunded by savages, and exposed to 
the most imminent danger. 

They immediately began to cultivate the ground and 
to erect a fort to protect them against the incursions of the 
Indians. When it was nearly completed. La Salle as- 
cended the Riviere aiix Yaclies^ to a distance of about 
two leagues from the bay, where he commenced the erec- 
tion of another fort, which he called Saint Louis, in honor 
of the King, who had bestowed on him so many favors. 
Placed on a height of land, the view from the fort extend- 
ed over the whole surrounding country. Llowever, when 
the buildings were almost finished, the people began to 
complain ; the grain, which they had sown became parched 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 55 

from the iutensity of the heat, or was destroyed by wild 
animals from the adjoining forest; the mechanics knew but 
little of their trades, and the works were suspended from 
the want of men to complete them ; the people grew exas- 
perated from the evils they suffered and broke out into 
open mutiny, which was only allayed by the interference 
of Joutel^ the author of the best account we have of this 
unfortunate expedition. Some of the men were seized 
with sickness and died, while others, threatened with a 
hostile attack from the Indians, complained that La Salle 
did not bring them out of the country. He alone, of all 
the colonists, concealed his fears, and never lost that equa- 
nimity for which he was remarkable; in the midst of 
all his difficulties, he preserved a calm and serene coun- 
tenance; he never gave vent to a thought w^hich might 
have the effect of discouraging his men, but on the con- 
trary, applied himself with assiduity to the completion 
of the work, and was himself foremost in carrying it on. 
The resources of his genius seemed to increase with the 
obstacles he had to surmount ; his temper, naturally kind 
to his inferiors, became severe as it was necessary to 
repress their insubordination, and he punished the slight- 
est faults with the greatest rigor. There hardly ever 
escaped a word of kindness or consolation from his lips, 
toward those who were suffering with the greatest pa- 
tience. A deep sadness came over the spirits of the 
colonists. They felt indifferent at everything that occur- 
red, and disease having again spread its ravages amongst 
them, about thirty of them surrendered life, without even 
a feeling of sorrow. The character of La Salle contrib- 
uted greatly to his misfortunes. His pride disdained any 
interference witii him. Any other person less capable, 
perhaps less just than him, but more insinuating, might 
have succeeded where he failed. 



66 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

lu that part of the country where this colony was 
established (now Texas) the climate was warm, but salu- 
brious, the air pure, the sky serene, and it scarcely ever 
rained ; extensive plains were seen, divided here and there 
by rivers, lakes, and the most charming rural retreats ; 
the palm tree grew in the forests, which were filled with 
a species of leopards and tigers, the rivers were full of 
crocodiles, twenty feet in length, which chased away the 
fish ; the hissing serpent was concealed beneath the grass, 
in the prairies strewn with flowers, which attracted the 
attention of the French, and a multitude of savage tribes 
were roving through the forests ; thus, in the midst of all 
the allurements of this fine tropical climate, beguiled by 
the charming prospect around them, they had but to 
wander from the precincts of their habitations, and they 
were doomed to meet with death, where they had hoped 
to enjoy life. 

La Salle resolved to make further exertions for the dis- 
covery of the outlet of the Mississippi . He made a voyage 
to the Colorado, in which he lost several men, who were 
massacred by the Indians, or perished in the ship^vi'eck of 
the Belle^ the only vessel belonging to him which was left 
after the departure of De Beaujeu. He made another 
excursion among the Cenis* a tribe in the interior, which 
was not more successful, and out of twenty men who went 
with him, he brought back but eight. Owing to sick- 
ness, and the accidents which happened to them, there 
were also frightful ravages amongst his other companions. 
La Salle proposed to ask for assistance from the inhabi- 
tants of the West India Islands, and to travel about the 
gulf of Mexico till he found the Mississippi, but the loss 

♦Charlevoix mentions, that the Clamcckts were the names of the sava- 
ges who lived on the borders of the sea, while the Cenis occupied the 
interior. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 57 

of the Belle frustrated all his plans ; his resources failing 
him every day, and being distant two thousand miles from 
the habitations of civilized man, there remained no other 
recourse but to demand assistance from France by the 
way of Canada. 

He decided to go himself to Illinois, a step which 
would certainly have been unadvisable, had not his pres- 
ence been necessary in Canada to silence his opponents, 
who were always ready to cast aspersions on his conduct, 
whenever success did not attend him. He left on the 
twelfth of January, 1687, taking with him seventeen 
persons, and leaving twenty at Fort Saint Louis, includ- 
ing men, women, and children. Thus, at this period, 
the number of colonists was reduced from one hundred 
and eighty to thirty-seven. A Canadian of the name of 
Le Barbier was left in command of the fort. "We sep- 
arated," says Joutel, "one from another, with such sor- 
row and sadness, that it appeared as if we all had a secret 
presentiment we should never see each other again." 

The journey was slow and painful. On the 16th of 
March, while they were yet on one of the tributaries of 
Trinity river, a sanguinary tragedy occurred, w^hich 
seemed to complete the misfortunes which had already 
befallen this ill-fated expedition. Some of the men who 
accompanied La Salle, at the head of whom was Duhaut, 
being separated from the rest, had a quarrel with La 
Salle's nephew, named Moragnet; disheartened at their 
losses and privations, and incensed at the insolence of 
this man, they determined to kill him, and to dispatch at 
the same time his two companions, in case they should 
disclose their participation in the offense. But they had 
no sooner committed this triple assassination, than fear- 
ing the justice of La Salle, and carried away by their 
propensity to commit crime, they thought their vengeance 



58 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

would not be satisfied as long as that chief lived ; his 
death was, therefore, resolved upon. In the meantime, 
La Salle, finding that his nephew did not return, a suspi- 
cion flitted across his mind that something wrong had 
occurred to him, and he asked if he had not had some 
difficulty with Duhaut. He left immediately to go and 
meet him. The conspirators having observed him com- 
ing at a distance, loaded their guns, crossed the river, 
and concealed themselves in the brushwood, lying in wait 
for him. The latter, on approaching their place of con- 
cealment, observed two eagles flying over his head, as if 
they were in the neighborhood of some prey ; he fired his 
gun. One of the conspirators came forth from his hiding- 
place, and on La Salle's approaching him, he asked him 
where was his nephew ? While he was giving a vague 
reply, a ball struck La Salle in the head, and he fell mor- 
tally wounded, without saying a word. The missionary 
Anastase who was near him, feared that he would under- 
go the same fate. La Salle lived about an hour after he 
had been wounded, and in shaking hands with Anastase, 
who was on his knees near him, indicated to him that he 
understood the w^ords which that pious missionary was 
addressing to him. He was buried on the spot where he 
was killed, in the midst of the forest, by that good priest, 
who planted a cross over his grave, in memory of one 
who had been to him a good friend and a kind compan- 
ion. Mr. Sparks places the scene of this bloody drama 
on the borders of one of the tributaries of the river Bra- 
zos, while other writers say it occurred in the vicinity of 
Trinity river. 

Tlie murderers laid hold of everything they could find 
and proceeded on their journey; some of their compan- 
ions with their hearts overburdened with grief, others 
with the deepest remorse and disquietude. The assassins 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 59 

soon became disunited, and in a quarrel which they had, 
respecting the division of the property, Duhaut and the 
Surgeon Liotot, the two chief conspirators, met with their 
death from a pistol-shot, fired at them by their compan- 
ions. The savages looked with terror on these sanguin- 
ary scenes, perpetrated in the depths of the forest, by 
those very men who had come among them to inculcate 
peaceful doctrines, and to teach them how sinful it was to 
imbrue their hands in human blood. Soon after the com- 
mission of this last crime they separated. All those who 
were compromised in the murder, remained among the 
Indians, while the others, to the number of seven, viz: 
Joutel, Anastase, the Cavaliers, uncle and nephew, and 
three others, continued their journey, as far as Illinois, 
where they arrived at Fort Saint Louis, on the fourteenth 
of September, 1687. 

However sad was the fate of La Salle and his compan- 
ions, the small colony that had remained at Saint Ber- 
nard's Bay, met with even more dreadful disasters. A few 
days after La Salle left, the savages suddenly attacked the 
fort, and massacred all the inhabitants with the exception 
of five. They had sufiered all the pangs of want and 
hunger; they had been exposed to the attacks of hordes 
of ruthless savages, and gladly w^elcomed death as the 
means of averting their misery. The five persons who 
escaped fell into the hands of the Spaniards ; two or three 
of them were sent to the mines of Mexico, and the oth- 
ers, young men named Talon, were taken under the pro- 
tection of the viceroy of that country, and treated by 
him, with every mark of kindness. When they arrived 
at the age of manhood, they were placed in the Spanish 
navy, and after several engagements, in which they dis- 
tinguished themselves, returned to France, their native 
country. 



60 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

Such was the unfortunate issue of an expedition which 
had inspired the greatest hopes, and which would have 
probably succeeded, had they confined themselv^es to pro- 
moting the objects they had in view at the establishment 
where they were at first located, without directing their 
attention elsewhere. Texas is one of the finest and most 
fertile countries in the world, but La Salle here commit- 
ted the same error he had fallen into in Canada, that 
of being accompanied by too many persons in his 
expeditions. The ruin of St. Louis was the necessary 
consequence of the disasters which befell this party. In 
order to promote its success, La Salle ought to have re- 
mained in his young colony, and given encouragement to 
settlements and the arts of agriculture. Some authors re- 
proach him for having lost sight of his first designs, in 
order to attempt the discovery of the fabulous mines of 
Sainte Barbe ; but there is nothing in Joutel, nor in Ze- 
nobe Mambre,* which would justify this assertion. f 

It would appear that the genius of this celebrated tra- 
veler was more adapted to establish a great commercial 
empire in those distant countries, than to found an agri- 
cultural colony. There was something grand and ma- 
jestic in his ideas, and the plans which he submitted to 
Louis the Fourteenth, were based on exact and profound 
calculations ; he was the precursor of Dupleix, 

* Christian Le Clere " First establishment of the Faith in New 
France." 

t On the contrary, instead of approaching the Spaniards, he went 
further from them. We read in Zenobe Mambre's work, " It was here, 
that La Salle changed his route from the North-East to the East, for rea- 
sons which he does not give us, and which we have never been able to 
penetrate." The Mississippi was to the East of him. There must be 
some error in this account from Zenobe Mambre, the words from " North- 
East to the East," ought perhaps to be read "From North-East to the 
West." His error consisted in not going to the East, where he would 
have discovered the outlet of the river. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 61 

I have enlarged more on the result of this unfortunate 
expedition because it serves as a prelude to that which 
was afterward undertaken in Louisiana. The student of 
American history owes a tribute of respect to the memory 
of a man who sacrificed his fortune and his life, in the 
cause of French colonization in America; for if he did 
not establish, he at least greatly accelerated the estab- 
lishment of Louisiana, now the abode of so many of his 
countrymen, and one of the most flourishing parts of the 
Union. Every day adds also to the interest which is 
taken in the history of the fathers of the New World. 
As this continent becomes more inhabited, as these an- 
cient colonies, once so poor, so humble in their origin, are 
changed into States, into independent republics, the 
names of their founders acquire increased celebrity, and 
their actions may be regarded as the landmarks of histo- 
ry, behind which there is so much to interest the student 
in his researches for information, concerning the early 
discovery of this part of America. 

The foundation of a colony in Louisiana, like that of 
Canada, and the other French possessions in America was 
doomed to be accompanied by many vicissitudes and mis- 
fortunes. The experience of a century had not changed 
the policy of the government, the large and comprehen- 
sive principles of Colbert were forgotten, even at the time 
when it was first contemplated to found this establish- 
ment, and the penury of a nearly exhausted treasury in- 
duced the creating of a monopoly, where the enterprise 
ought to have received the attention, for it needed the un- 
divided energies of the Government. France at the pre- 
sent day is attempting to establish a military empire in 
Africa; it might learn a lesson from its experience in the 
colonization of this Continent. There were none of the 
elements of durability in either the policy she pursued or 



62 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

the institutions she established in the New World. She 
placed her foot on American soil, in the hope of realizing 
money from the adventure; her objects were to promote 
commerce and increase her wealth ; she thought but little 
of the means of ensuring happiness to her children on 
this continent. By encouraging the arts of agriculture, 
she would be giving hope to the colonists that they would 
find a permanent home in the wilds of America, and this 
would thwart her schemes for aggrandizing herself by 
the monopoly of the commerce of the New World. She 
would not give them liberty, but preferred transplanting 
on this continent, the germs of that despotism that was 
crushing the energies of her people at home. Hence, her 
want of success, in making the colonists feel a permanent 
interest in the soil ; hence, from their love of liberty, and 
fear of despotism, they yielded, under the combined in- 
fluence of American valor and patriotism. From the 
plains of Abraham, in the frigid regions of Canada, to 
the rice and sugar plantations of Louisiana, there was not 
an inch of territory which she was not finally obliged to 
abandon, although she was the first to enter on the work 
of colonization and to obtain a temporary foothold in the 
country. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The war which was terminated by the peace of Ris- 
wick, had engrossed so much of the attention of the 
French, that they did not make any further attempt toco- 
Ionize cither Texas or Louisiana; but several French Ca- 
nadians, attracted by the beauty and fertility of the 
country, had established themselves during this period 
along the shores of the Atlantic and the Mississippi, and 
were the ancestors of many of those wealthy planters and 



I 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 63 

merchants, who are now settled in the city of New Or- 
leans and the surrounding country. They had founded 
establishments in that part of Louisiana, and at Mo- 
bile, in order to be as near as possible to the French West 
India Islands, whither they resorted for purposes of com- 
merce.* But as soon as peace was re-established on a 
solid and permanent basis, the French Court bestowed its 
attention on the affairs of the New World. The Spaniards, 
who at all times looked upon America as their exclusive 
patrimony, had regarded La Sailers enterprise with much 
envy, and they learned the news of his death and the 
dispersion of his companions without manifesting any 
emotion. They knew it would afford them the opportu- 
nity of taking quiet possession of the country and driv- 
ing away the French forever. After having visited dif- 
ferent parts of the coast, for the purpose of selecting a 
convenient locality for a settlement, they established 
themselves at Pensacola, at the western extremity of Flo- 
rida, where the}^ had remained for a short period before 
D'Iberville arrived. 

On his return from Hudson's Bay in 1697, this cele- 
brated traveler proposed to the French Ministry to re- 
sume the projects which they had some years before 
contemplated with respect to Louisiana. M. de Pont- 
chartrain readily accepted his offer, and gave him two 
vessels, with which he set sail from Rochefort in France, 
in the month of October of the following year, and more 
successful than La Salle, he found the outlet of the Mis- 
sissipi, the search after which had occupied a part of the 
lifetime of his predecessor. Having on his return been 
named Governor-General of that extensive country, he 
went there in the year 1699, with a number of colonists. 



*Le Page Dupratz's work on America, published in Paris in 1758. 



64 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

He presented himself before Fort Pensacola, and asked 
permission to disembark, which the Spaniards refused. 
He continued his route toward the West, and in March 
1669, entered the mouth of the Mississippi, which he 
ascended to the settlement of the Outmas^ a tribe estab- 
lished above the place now known as Donaldsonville, 
who delivered to him a letter from De Tonti, addressed 
to La Salle, whom he had wished to meet in the fall of 
1685. 

D'Iberville returned, and disembarked his small colony 
in the Bay of Biloxi, situated between the river and Pen- 
sacola. Here they suffered much from the heat of the 
climate, and there was nothing in the appearance of the 
country to attract their attention ; its dry and arid soil 
they judged unfit for agriculture; and they concluded 
that D'Iberville selected the locality as being so well 
adapted to establish commercial relations with the neigh- 
boring Indians, the Spaniards, the French West India 
Islands, and with Europe. 

On his return from France, in the year 1700, D'Iber- 
ville was apprised that the English, coming from the 
sea, had appeared in the Mississippi, w^hile others, com- 
ing by land from Carolina, had advanced as far as the 
territory of the Chickasaws, on the river Yazous.* The 
attention of this nation was attracted toward Louisiana 
by the treasonable conduct of Father Hennepin, f who, 
in dedicating a new edition of his travels in America to 
King William the Third, wherein he described La Salle's 
discoveries as his own, invited that Protestant monarch 
to take possession of the country, and to propagate the 

* The CaroHnas, North and South, are marked on the old French 
charts as having the Mississippi for their western boundary. 

t The King of France issued orders to arrest this monk if he presented 
himself in Canada. (Documens de Paris.) 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 65 

gospel among the Indians.* William, therefore, dis- 
patched three vessels, laden with Huguenots, to com- 
mence the colonization of the Mississippi; but D'lber- 
ville was beforehand with them. They then went to the 
Province of Panuca, to concert measures with the Span- 
iards to drive away the French from Biloxi. This pro- 
ceeding was, however, ineffectual. f They met with 
hardly any opposition on the part of the Spaniards; and 
from the friendly relations which subsisted between these 
nations at the commencement of the century, the Eng- 
lish were foiled in their efforts to bring about a state of 
hostility between them. 

After the revocation of the edict of Nantes a large 
number of Huguenots had established themselves in 
Virginia, and along the coast of America. They had 
acquired considerable property in Carolina; and Massa- 
chusetts had given them the right of representation in 
the Legislature. They established niany towns, which 
are now in a flourishing state. These unfortunate exiles, 
who could never forget their native country, had peti- 
tioned Louis the Fourteenth for permission to settle 
under his protection in Louisiana. They assured him 
that they would ever be faithful subjects, and would de- 
mand nothing more than liberty of conscience. They 
said that if he acceded to their wishes, they would leave 
in considerable numbers, and aid in developing the re- 
sources of that flourishing country. Louis the Four- 



* There is a curious passage in the abstract of a Memorial to King 
William, presenting the claims of the English to a part of the valley of 
the Mississippi (to be found in the Appendix to Coxe's Coralana, p. 86), 
in which the New Englanders claimed a right to the territory, on the 
ground of discovery in the year 1678. Coxe's Coralana was published 
in 1722. 

t Universal History, XI, 278. 



66 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

teenth, who became more religious as his years advanced, 
refused their prayer, ''' The king," says Pontchartrain, 
" did not expel the Protestants from his kingdom to erect 
a republic in America." They renewed their demand 
under the regency of the Duke of Orleans, but that 
licentious prince gave them the same answer as his pre- 
decessor. In speaking of the Huguenots, the circum- 
stance of their arrival in America may be mentioned in 
connection with the discovery of the West. They were 
a hardy and energetic race of men : suffering from re- 
ligious persecution, and escaping from the flames of 
religious warfare which were kindling in their native 
country, they emigrated to America, appreciating the 
value of civil and religious liberty. Foremost in every 
work for the advancement and amelioration of their race, 
they prosecuted science for the blessings it w^ould confer 
on mankind, and thus contributed in no slight degree to 
facilitate the labors of those who were making researches 
in America. Nor were they behind-hand in the strug- 
gles which tlieir adopted country was afterward engaged 
in with the parent State. The}^ voluntarily came for- 
ward, and rendered essential service to America when 
she stood most in need of it. " The remembrance," 
says an American writer,* " of the distinguished services 
which their descendants rendered to our country, and to 
the cause of civil and religious liberty, ought to increase 
our respect for the French emigrants, and our interest in 
their history. Mr. Gabriel Manigault, of South Caro- 
lina, gave the country which had offered an asylum to 
his ancestors two hundred and twenty thousand dollars, 



* Memoir of the French Protestants who settled at Oxford Massachu- 
setts, A. D. 1686 ; with a sketch of the entire History of the Protestants 
of France, by A. Holmes, D. D., Corresponding Secretary. Collection 
of the Massachusetts Historical Society ; Vol. II, of the 3d series. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 67 

to carry on the war of Independence. lie rendered this 
service at the commencement of the contest, when no one 
could say whether it would terminate in a revolution or 
a revolt. Of the nine chairmen of the old Congress, who 
directed the afiairs of the United States during the war 
of the Revolution, three were descendants of French 
Protestant refugees, viz : Henry Laurens of South Caro- 
lina, John Jay of New York, and Elias Boudinot of New 
Jersey." 

We left D'Iberville engaged in establishing his small 
colony in the Bay of Biloxi, near Pensacola. He un- 
dertook a short voyage up the Mississippi as far as 
Natchez, where he contemplated fixing the site of a town ; 
but he returned to Biloxi, where he established his head- 
quarters. M. De Sau voile was named the commandant 
of this fort. Dlberville wrote to the French ministry 
that men of experience in the afiairs of America were of 
opinion that Louisiana would never become important, in 
a commercial point of view, unless they established free 
trade with the merchants of the kingdom. The govern- 
ment restricted commerce with Louisiana, as it was gen- 
erally believed at that period that great value was to be 
attached to the pearl fisheries, and the skins of the hisons 
and other wild animals, and that the trade in these ar- 
ticles would greatly enrich the public treasury. The 
rumors that prevailed in France respecting the existence 
of gold and silver mines to the west of the Mississippi, 
led the government to indulge in the most sanguine hopes 
that the country would prove the richest portion of the 
French domains. This, therefore, induced the ministry 
to create monopolies which they could at all times regu- 
late, rather than throw open the commerce of Louisiana 
to the enterprise and industry of its people. D'Iberville 
sent M. Leseur, his relative, to take possession of a cop- 



68 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

per mine on Green river, to the north-west of the Falls 
of Saint Anthony. This undertaking was soon aban- 
doned, on account of its being carried on so far in the 
interior. With regard to the pretended mines of gold 
and silver, which excited much more attention in Europe 
than in America, they were so many idle delusions which 
seized hold of the public mind for the moment, but which 
vanished as soon as the uncertainty of their existence 
became known. Not that there were no mines to the 
west of the Mississippi, but they had not tJien been dis- 
covered. With many, the search after gold was the only 
object they had in view in coming to the New World ; 
but their hopes were doomed to be disappointed, and 
their labors resulted in shame and ruin. Such were the 
frequent attempts made by a Portuguese fugitive, named 
Antoine, who had escaped from the mines of Mexico, and 
who had made several fruitless searches in the soil of 
Louisiana. They resulted in nothing else than to bring 
the French himters after gold nearer and nearer to the 
sources of the rivers emptying themselves into the Mis 
sissippi, and which took their rise in the neighborhood of 
the liocky Mountains. In their wanderings they had 
traversed the country bordering on the banks of the Red 
river, the Arkansas, and the Missouri, and the coveted 
riches which they idly fancied were emboweled in the 
earth fled before them as so many mirages of the desert. 
To wdiat reflections do these unsuccessful attempts of 
the French give rise ? Had they discovered the existence 
of the gold, which is now known to be to the w^est of the 
Mississippi ; had they the most distant idea of the ex- 
istence of that wealth which is now within the limits of 
our Government, what an impetics would it have given to 
the cause of French colonization in America ? Thousands 
would have left their native countrv and settled themselves 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 69 

on this Continent, attracted by that golden meteor which 
they saw in the distance, and which they were so eagerly 
in search of. Instead of shedding their blood on the battle 
fields of Duquesne and Monongahela, in the hope of 
sustaining a feeble sovereignty in the New World, they 
would have fought with desperation, knowing the value 
of the prize they were surrendering. But the French was 
not the nation which Providence had ordained should 
become the inheritors and the possessors of this soil. The 
glorious deeds of our ancestors, in ejecting the French from 
America, were begun amongst the mountain passes of the 
AUeghanies. They were consummated in the war for 
Independence. Divine Providence, in rewarding those 
who were not engaged in a searcJi after gold^ but who 
were battling in the cause of human liberty and civiliza- 
tion on the plains of Cerro Gordo and Buena Vista, 
opened to their view those objects which the French had 
searched for in vain — those mines of gold which they had 
so long coveted, but which they never could obtain. 

In the year 1701, D'Iberville commenced an establish- 
ment on the river Mobile, and M. de Bienville, his brother, 
since in command of the colony, after the death of De 
SauvoUe, removed the inhabitants from the sandy plains 
of Biloxi to this more favored locality. The river was 
only navigable for boats of light draught, and the soil 
which it watered, was only adapted for the cultivation of 
tobacco, but, " according to the system that then prevailed, 
of fixing the colony near the mouth of a river," they 
wished to be within a short distance of the Island of 
Dauphine, or the Massacre, as it was called, in order that 
they might have the advantage of a harbor, from whence, 
as at Biloxi, they might trade with the Spaniards, the 
French West India Islands, and with Europe. Mobile 
soon became the chief place of residenc, (phef-Ueu)^ of 



70 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

the French. On his fourth voyage to Louisiana in the 
following year, D'Iberville caused barracks and stores to 
be constructed, and under the management of its first 
founder, the Colony advanced by degrees, in population 
and resources, until the death of D'Iberville, which 
occurred in the year 1706. D'Iberville expired, with the 
reputation of being one of the bravest and most skillful 
officers in the French Navy. Born in Canada, of an 
ancient Norman family, he had enlisted, almost from his 
boyhood, in the service of his country. He had passed 
his apprenticeship in arms, in the wars which the French 
carried on against hostile Indian tribes, in which the 
most essential qualifications in the French officer was the 
possession of extraordinary physical force, and the most 
daring intrepidity, and in which the officer, as the soldier, 
was alike accustomed to lengthy marches in the thickest 
forests, at all seasons of the year. Depending on the 
chase for food, and handling his gun as he would his ax, 
and his paddle as his sword, he was brought up to a life 
of the severest privations ; " not to fear a ball, if it should 
strike him in the midst of the forest, nor to attack the 
most savage Indians in an ambuscade ; nor to storm a fort, 
by a sharp escalade, and without artillery." D'Iberville 
excelled in this difficult and sanguinary mode of warfare. 
He was no less distinguished as a mariner, and had he 
remained in France, would have reached the highest 
grades in his profession. He engaged in a number of 
combats on the sea, sometimes against superior forces, 
and he was always victorious. He twice carried on a 
most desolating war against the English possessions in 
Newfoundland, and took its capital ; he conquered Pem- 
aquid in Acadia ; subdued the territory around Hud- 
son's Bay ; founded Louisiana, and terminated a most 
glorious career before Havana in 1706, then serving as 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 71 

commander-in-chief of the French squadron.* Having 
been attacked with the yellow fever, liis health for the last 
three or four years of his eventful life, had become seri- 
ously impaired. The "colonies," (says Bancroft), "and 
the French Navy, lost in him a hero worthy of their 
regret." He was a man wdiom nature had endowed with 
the necessary qualifications to go through the difficult 
duties he had to perform. The Marquis of Denonville, 
who appreciated his talents, had recommended him to the 
French Court. In 1702, Louis the Fourteenth, who en- 
couraged the young French nobility in Canada, raised him 
from the grade of a captain of a frigate, to that of 
commander of a man of war.f His death was a loss for 
Louisiana, for it is to be presumed, that had he lived 
longer, the colony would have made considerable progress ; 
but that illustrious mariner, whose authority was so great, 
being dead, a long period elapsed before a new Governor 
arrived from France. 

Two years after the death of D'Iberville, M. Diron 
d'Artaguette came to Louisiana, in the capacity of Com- 
missaire-ordoniiateuT^ an office which corresponded with 
that of Intendant in the old French colonies, investing 
him with civil and military authority. Some authors 
mention that D'Artaguette was named Governor, but this 
is an error. This new functionary worked with little 
success to put the colony in a better condition, and the 
inhabitants had long complained of the hardships they 



* The work of Le Page Dupratz. 

+ Gazette of France of the 15th July, 1702. Historical notes and 
manuscripts of M. A. Berthelot, Esquire. The historical manuscripts in 
the possession of the family of the late Amable Berthelot, Esq., member 
of the Canadian Parliament, are of considerable interest, and have not 
yet been published. Jacques Viger, Esq., late Mayor of the city of Mon- 
treal, Canada, is also in possessson of manuscripts of great value relating 
to the early history of America. 



72 HISTOEY OF THE VALLEY 

had to undergo. Neither the soil nor the climate was 
adapted for agricultural or industrial pursuits, and they 
wished to return to their native country. However, they 
entertained quite a contrary opinion in Europe of the 
capability and resources of Louisiana ; and notwithstand- 
ing France was then engaged in a most disastrous war, 
her possessions in America continued to attract a great 
deal of attention. In the course of this war, the island 
of Dauphine suffered much from the depredations of cor- 
sairs and pirates ; and in the year 1711, they caused a 
damage to the colonists, which w^as estimated at eighty 
thousand francs. D'Artaguette was not the m^an who ought 
to have been chosen to direct the affairs of the colony at 
that critical period. He was weak-minded and vacillat- 
ing, and his conduct was in striking contrast with that of 
D'Iberville, who infused a spirit of energy and determin- 
ation amongst the people. ^'A colony (says Raynal*) 
founded on such an uncertain basis, could never prosper." 
The death of D'Iberville had spread consternation amongst 
them, and having lost their leader, they were thrown into 
a state of despair. The colonists thought they were about 
being totally abandoned by France, and sought other 
localities where they hoped to find better means of living. 
Toward the end of the year 1711, there were but twenty- 
eight families remaining, and these were reduced to a 
state of the greatest misery. 

The French possessions in America were in the state 
in which they are herein described, when in the year 

* The Abbe Raynal, whose work on the " History of the two Indies" 
excited such attention at the time of its publication, and increased his 
reputation as an author and a statesman. His " Essay on the American 
Revolution," is justly esteemed as a master-piece of fine writing and 
pure philosophy. This work contributed much to enlighten the public 
mind in Europe, as to the true character of the contest between the 
colonies and England. Many passages in it are truly eloquent. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 73 

1712, Crozat demanded and obtained from the King of 
France the monopoly of the commerce of Louisiana for 
a period of sixteen years. 



CHAPTEK YII. 

It is necessary, that we should direct our attention to 
what was occurring in the North -Western portion of the 
continent, before we refer to any other matters connected 
with tiie colonization of the southern part of America. 

Mr. Bancroft says,* that before 1693, the Reverend 
Father Gravier began a mission among the Illinois, and 
became the founder of Kaskaskia, though it is not known 
in what year it was established. This presumption is 
founded on the contents of a letter written by the Rever- 
end Gabriel Marest, dated ^^Aux Kaskaskias^ autrement 
dit V Immaculee Conception de la Salute Vierge^ le 9 
Novemhre^ 1712, in which mention is made of there hav- 
ing been for some years, an establishment at this point. 
He further states, that soon after the founding of Kaskas- 
kia, Cahokia and Peoria were established. These state- 
ments are repeated in '' Perkins's Annals of the West,"f 
and the authority on which they are based seems to be 
taken from a work published in Paris in 1781, ' Lettres 
Ed'ifiantes^ 328, 339, 375. I have not seen any account 
in the French histories of the establishment of any place 
as a permanent settlement before that of tho Forts Mia- 
mi and Crevecoeur, and in an old map in my possession, 
which was published in France after the year 1738, de- 
scriptive of America while in the occupation of the Indi- 
an tribes, I observe a river marked on this chart, as run- 



Bancroft, vol. 3d, 195. t Perkins's Annals of the West, page 55. 

7 



74: HISTOKY OF THE VALLEY. 

ning in a South -Westerly direction from Detroit, and 
named the "River St. Jerome, by which the Canadians 
come from Quebec,'' {Riviere St. Jerome jpar ou les Ca- 
nadiens vienntnt de Qiiebeo). The outlet of this river 
is at a place called " Fort Staquado^^' on the Ohio, which 
if it be the Wabash, as I am inclined to believe, this Fort 
must have occupied the site at the junction of that river 
with the Ohio. The Canadians generally followed the 
course of the rivers, and the geographer, by indicating the 
river St. Jerome as the course which they took, it is 
rather singular, if it be the Wabash, that they should not 
have established themselves along the shores of that river 
and the Ohio, and the southern branch of the Mississippi, 
before they ascended as high up the river as the present 
sites of Kaskaskia and Cahokia. These latter settle- 
ments are not marl^ed on this old charts and although 
the geographers of that period may not have been very 
remarkable for accuracy in describing the country, never- 
theless, I am inclined to entertain doubts, whether other 
places were not established before the Canadians had settled 
either in Kaskaskia or Cahokia. In my opinion. Fort 
Crevecceur,* near Peoria, Illinois, might claim the honor of 
being the first permanent settlement of the " white men " in 



* Some writers, among others " Coxe's Coralana," at page 32 of his 
work, says, that Fort Crevecceur was built on the south-east bank of the 
river Illinois; others locate it differently. In the historical view of Peo- 
ria, pul:>lished lately by S. Dewitt Drown, there is a plan of the Fort, 
which is located by the writer " at two or three miles east of Peoria." 
Like other matters of historical inquiry, relating to discoveries in the 
"West, such as the dates of the establishments of towns, villages, etc., 
nothing can be stated with certainty. In Mr. Drown's work, and the Rev. 
Mr. Peck's able sketches, which were concluded in the Republican of 
St. Louis on tlie 17th of August last, may be found much useful and 
valuable information. Judge Breeze's labors on this subject, and Mr. 
Primm's able address, are too well known to need any reference to them. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 75 

the West ; for as we are informed, it was formed by La Salle ; 
its claims to precedence in this respect are better than 
those of either of the places which have been named. 
The matter is not of much importance, but as a historical 
fact, is worthy of further inquiry. 

The historian Hennepin had said, "that those who 
would have the happiness, at some future period, to pos- 
sess the lands of this agreeable and fertile country, would 
be under lasting obligations to those travelers who showed 
them the way, and crossed Lake Erie, after a hundred 
leagues of difficult navigation." These words had hardly 
been pronounced, when in June, 1700, M. de la Motte Ca- 
dillac, arrived at Detroit, with a hundred Canadians and 
a missionary, to form an establishment. The colonists 
were delighted with the beauty of the country and the 
mildness of the climate. In the language of the writers 
of that period, "Nature spread its charms over the face 
of that delightful country." With its surface slightly 
undulated by picturesque elevations, its green prairies, its 
forests of oak, and of maple, intermingled here and there 
with specimens of the wild acacia, its running streams, 
and the beautiful small islands dotted over the surface of 
its lakes, there was everything to attract the attention and 
enrapture the imaginations of the newly-arrived colonists, 
particularly after leaving the bleak hills and snowy vales 
of Canada, their native country. Even at the present 
day, the Canadians, in the midst of their more enterpris- 
ing brethren, still linger around the old homesteads of 
their ancestors, in that section of Michigan, and in the 
markets of Detroit, the old Canadian vehicles are to be 
found, in striking contrast with the more novel inventions 
of their industrious neighbors. 

About this period, 1701, the English colonists in Amer- 
ica were beginning to be alarmed at the important posi- 



76 HISTORY OF THE A'ALLEY 

tion the French were assuming in relation to the affairs 
of this Continent. The latter power being in possession 
of Canada, and the country bordering on the Great Lakes, 
was the rival of England, whose colonies were situated 
near the seabord. The policy of the French government 
was to extend their sovereignty in the interior of Amer- 
ica, and they could only do so by cultivating the friendly 
feelings of the pow^erful Indian tribes who wandered over 
the country. It was a vast and gigantic plan which the 
ministers of Louis the Fourteenth had formed for the 
subjugation of this Continent. They contemplated the 
establishment of a chain of forts extending from Canada 
on the one hand, to Louisiana on the other, and with the 
Mississippi as their western boundary, they thought it 
would not be difficult to drive away the English and 
obtain exclusive possession of the country. At that 
period the British colonies did not exceed two hundred 
and twenty-live thousand in population ; they were scat- 
tered over an immense tract of country, from Massachu- 
setts on the one hand, to the Carolinas on the other, and 
there was no concerted plan of action between them. 
The 'New England states did not comprise much more 
than one hundred thousand men, many of whom were 
engaged in agricultural pursuits, whenever their enemies 
(the Indians) ceased from carrying on their predatory 
excursions, and afforded an opportunity of employing 
themselves in rural labor. The Ahenalds were then a 
powerful tribe, whose strongholds were situated on their 
northern frontier, and they gave the colonists quite suffi- 
cient trouble in resisting their encroachments, without 
interfering in the contests which were carried on between 
the French and tlie other tribes in the interior. 

Tliis led to that passive state in which the British 
colonists remained up to the period of the treaty of Aix- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 77 

la-Chapelle, in 174S, when from their increased numbers 
and powerful influence, they Avere commencing to give 
another direction to affairs on this Continent. 

But four years had elapsed since the settlement of 
Detroit, when the flames of war were again kindled, and 
it required all the energy and activity of the Marquis de 
Yaudreuil, the Governor-General of Canada, to quell the 
turbulent spirit of the Iroquoise confederation. The 
latter were the complete masters of the country, and their 
alliance was courted by both the French and the English. 
During this period, and for a number of years, the cause 
of colonization was greatly impeded by these unremitting 
hostilities on the part of the Indian tribes. The history 
of this period is replete with accounts of the encroachments 
of the Indian tribes on the French possessions in the west, 
and of the measures which they adopted to repel them. 
The slightest cause w^as immediately seized hold of, to 
declare war between these numerous and powerful tribes 
and their weak enemies, the French. Several voyageurs 
from Canada traveled through the western country for 
purposes of trade, but we read of no further settlements 
in the west for a number of years. The historical records 
of this period, relating to the discovery of the west, are 
very incomplete, and it is only of late years that any 
attention has been bestowed on the subject. These re- 
cords consist almost exclusively of the '' Kelations of the 
Jesuits," several of whose works have only been lately 
discovered.* 

*Dr. O'Callaghan, author of the "History of the New Netherlands," 
and the compiler of several valuable State papers, relating to the History 
of New York, has lately published a list of the works which the Jesuits 
wrote on the early history of this country. This small publication has 
since been translated into French by Jacques Viger, Esquire, of Mon- 
treal, with several notes and corrections. It is a valuable compendium 
of the works of these writers. 



78 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

From the 3'ear 1714 to 1728, there was nothing inter- 
esting in the annals of military warfare in the west. In 
this year, however, the Canadians were again called to 
arms, and equipped an expedition which is worthy of 
being mentioned. In the long contests which ensued 
between the Iroquoise confederation and the French, there 
is nothing remarkable, excepting that the history of this 
period is replete with accounts of most sanguinary battles, 
of these being followed by truces, which, almost as soon 
as they were entered into, were again broken, and gave 
rise to scenes of the wildest disorder. Predatory excur- 
sions were made by roving Indians in the forest, into the 
settlements of the French at Detroit and Illinois, and it 
was difficult to exercise summary punishment on those 
offenders, who took refuge within the recesses of the for- 
est. But in the beginning of the year 1728, the Oiitaga- 
mis^ whose strongholds were situated on the shores of 
Lake Michigan, caused great annoyance to the French, 
by their frequent depredations and attacks on the settle- 
ment at Detroit. This nation was distinguished for its 
peculiar mode of warfare, and had become the object of 
the hatred of all the other tribes in the West. They were 
ferocious, cunning, and cruel ; they had resisted all at- 
tempts at overtures on the part of the French to enter 
into friendly relations with them, and although they suf- 
fered many defeats, no sooner were they dispersed, than 
they again appeared in increased numbers, and commit- 
ted gi-eat havoc and plunder. A military expedition was 
fitted out to reduce them to submission. It was placed 
under the command of M. de Ligneris, and consisted of 
four hundred and fifty Canadians, and seven or eight 



"We have also lately heard of the discovery of other " Relations " or 
accounts of their voyages in the West in one of the Libraries in Rome. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 79 

hundred Indians. They left Montreal in the commence- 
ment of June, and proceeded by a northwardly course to 
the point of their destination. They arrived at Michili- 
mackinac on the first of August, and at Lake Michigan 
on the 14th of that month, after two months and nine 
days' traveling. After a few engagements with a tribe 
called "Les Malhomines, or Folles-avoines," in which 
they were successful, they proceeded to the villages and 
hunting-grounds of the Outagamis, which they found 
deserted, and after wandering about in those localities for 
a short time, they retraced their steps and returned home. 
It was during this expedition that the French directed their 
attention more particularly to further discoveries in the 
North -West. They had succeeded in tracing the course 
of the two great rivers, and of all the great Lakes in the 
northern part of the Continent; they had ascended the 
tributaries of the Mississippi, which take their sources in 
the Rocky Mountains ; they had even attempted to find 
a Xorth-Western passage to the Pacific ; but in this they 
did not succeed, although we read in the works of Lepage 
Dupratz, that an Indian of the name of Yazou had ac- 
complished the journey. The French had tried on sev- 
eral occasions to find a passage across the mountains to 
the ocean, but I do not find it recorded in any work to 
which I have had access, that they were successful in 
attaining their object. About this period (1729) the 
attention of the French government was directed to the 
prosecution of furtlier discoveries in America, and for a 
few years they made several fruitless attempts to engage 
navigators and traders to direct their steps North-West- 
erly, in the hope of finding the ocean. But few were 
found to undergo the dangers and perils of the journey, 
and it was only in the year 1738, that an expedition was 
formed, under the auspices of M. de Beauharnais, the 



80 HISTOEY OF THE VALLEY 

governor, the object of which was to make further dis- 
coveries in the North-West. M. de Maurepas was fore- 
most in setting this enterprise on foot; he was the Min- 
ister of France at that period, and was evidently a man 
of great genius and learning, full of enterprise, and 
resolved to carry on with vigor the great work of explor- 
ation on this Continent. He chose M. de la Yerandrye to 
be the chief of the expedition. This man had neither 
the energy nor the ambition of Perrot or La Salle, but 
he had some experience in traveling in the forests, and a 
satisfactory result might have been expected from his 
labors. He left Canada in the year 1738, with orders to 
take possession of all the countries he might discover 
in the name of the French king, and to examine atten- 
tively wdiat advantages might be obtained from establish- 
ing a communication between Canada or Louisiana and 
the Pacific ocean. The government contemplated the 
extension of trading-posts to the Xorth-West as far as the 
ocean, and the acquisition of great wealth from the pel- 
tries and other products furnished by the Indians. At 
that period the attention of Europeans began to be directed 
toward the countries in the Korth-Western part of Amer- 
ica, and although their researches had not as yet proved 
ver}^ successful, they thought they would at no distant 
day realize the advantages which would arise from the 
discovery of this Continent, and the unbounded wealth 
which they fondly imagined was contained within the 
limits of the Western Hemisphere. They knew not to 
what point the boundaries of America extended, and as 
their bold and fearless adventurers had advanced within 
the recesses of the forest, they found there was no limit, 
no end to their journey; they were always proceeding in 
a westerly course, and yet they did not meet with the 
ocean ; it seemed to them as if this long-looked for object 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 8 J 

receded as they advanced ; that it was a mere dream of 
the imagination. Many of them retm^ned, disheartened, 
to their country, and abandoned the project, as one which 
was fraught witli danger and difficulties of no ordinary 
character, and which even if they succeeded in accom- 
plishing, would be attended with little benefit to them. 
M. de la Yerandrye passed Lake Superior, advanced 
toward the foot of Lake AYinnipeg, and then ascending 
the river Assinniboin, approached the Rocky Mountains, 
which he did not however reach, having become engaged 
in a war with the Indians, in which he lost several of 
his men, and becoming disconcerted at the difficulties 
which surrounded him, he abandoned the enterprise and 
returned to Canada. This traveler mentioned to the 
learned Swedish historian Kalm, whom he afterward met 
in the year 1749, that he discovered in the territory to the 
North-West, at a distance of nine hundred leagues from 
Montreal, massive stone columns of great height and 
durability, in some instances, one placed over the other, 
forming a kind of wall, and in others, consisting of one 
large block only; he does not mention that there were 
any superscriptions or words marked on these stones, with 
the exception of one of the size of about one foot in 
length, by about four or five inches in breadth, on both 
sides of which were some unknown marks, resembling 
letters, the meaning of which they did not understand. 
This small stone was afterward sent to the Secretary of 
State in Paris. 

Many of the missionaries whom Kalm saw in Canada 
assured him that the letters which were engraved on it 
resembled very much those which were in use among 
the Tartars ; and from this circumstance, and others which 
were afterward mentioned by other travelers, must have 
originated the belief, which was very generally enter- 



82 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

tained in the commencement of the eighteenth century, 
of the existence of a great Asiatic emigration of tribes 
from Tartary, the progenitors of at least a part of the 
Indian tribes wandering over the continent. The late 
discoveries in Central America would also tend to fortify 
this hypothesis.* However it may be, it gave rise to 
some very learned disquisitions among the French and 
Spanish savans to account for the origin of our Indian 
tribes. The voluminous and elaborate works of De 
Pauw and Bailli d'Engel may be enumerated among the 
former, while the work of Gregorio Garcias, in folio^ 
" rig en de los Indios de el Nuovo Mundo et Indios 
Occidentales^''\ published in Madrid in the year 1729, 
may be mentioned among the latter. There has been no 
question, even in modern times, on which such a vast 
amount of learning has been expended, as that respect- 
ing the origin of the savage tribes of this Continent; and 
although volumes have been written on this abstruse sub- 
ject, we are j^et as much in the dark as ever as to the 
manner in which this Continent first became inhabited. 

The French gave the name of the Country of the 
Western Ocean, '''•Pays de la Mer de VOuest^^ to the 
territory discovered by M. de la Yerandrye, because 
they thought it was not far from the sea. They estab- 
lished a chain of small trading-posts, to keep the Indians 
under subjection, and to carry on their commerce in pel- 
tries. The post which was at the greatest distance from 
any settlement of the French, was called "Queen's Post." 
It was situated at about a hundred leagues to the west 
of Lake Winnipeg, on the Assinniboin river. Three 
other forts or posts were afterward erected to the west 

* P. F. Cabrera : " Description of an Ancient City, discovered in the 
Kingdom of Guateraala." Quarto. London, 1822. 
t Stephens's Travels in Central America. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 83 

of Queen's Post, the farthest one being called Pascoyac, 
after the river of that name. 

Under the administration of M. de la Jonqniere an- 
other expedition was set on foot, having the same object 
in view. The French Intendant, Bigot, was then in 
Canada. For the purpose of trading with the Indians, 
as well as to make discoveries, he formed an association, 
which consisted of the Governor and himself, M. Breard, 
Comptroller of the Marine, Legardeur de St. Pierre, an 
officer distinguished for his bravery, and well liked by 
the Lidians, and De Marin, a sea-captain, held in great 
fear by the savages for the cruelty of his disposition. 
To the two latter was assigned the accomplishment of 
the objects of the Association. Marin was to ascend the 
Missouri, in order to discover if there was another river 
flowing to the ocean ; while St. Pierre was to take the 
direction of Queen's Post, and endeavor to meet his 
fellow-traveler at some point which was designated by 
them. The object which they had in view — to make 
scientific discoveries in the West — ^appeared, however, to 
be subordinate to that of amassing wealth from their 
voyage ; for they returned, after a short journey, bringing 
back with them a large quantity of peltries, the value of 
which was immense, and served to swell the coffers of 
the association. 

We read of no further discoveries in the North-Western 
part of this continent which are worthy of being men- 
tioned, unless it be those made by American travelers at 
a much later period, whose efforts in the cause of the 
colonization of the West yield only in interest to what the 
early pioneers accomplished in the discovery of the valley 
of the Mississippi. 

In the year 1735 the tocsin of war was again heard, 
and although hostilities did not commence until several 



84 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

years after, preparations were being made by the two 
great antagonistic nations on tins Continent in tlieir 
struggle for ascendency. In this year (1735) M. de Yan 
KensaeUer, Patroon, or Lord of the Manor, in Albany, 
New York, paid a visit to the Governor in Canada, and 
informed him that there was a more favorable feeling 
existing between the people of that colony and those on 
the other side of the frontier, and deprecating (even if 
war should break out) any hostile proceedings between 
the French and the English settlers in that colony. In 
1740 war between England and France appeared to be 
more imminent than ever ; and M. de Beauharnais, under 
orders from the French court, put the fortresses of Cham- 
bly, St. Frederick, and Niagara, in a state of defense. 
He also courted the alliance of the Indian tribes, whose 
assistance would greatly contribute to the success of his 
cause. Their assistance was very desirable, inasmuch as 
at that period (1741) there were upward of fifteen thou- 
sand able-bodied men, who were reckoned as warriors 
among the Indian tribes, from the territory occupied by 
the Abenaquis to the north to the Mobiliens and Choc- 
taws to the south. 

We shall now recur to wdiat was passing in the South- 
western portion of America, but before we conclude this 
part of our subject, we cannot but express our regret 
that the historical records, contained in the accounts of 
t\ie missionaries, relating to the discoveries in tlie North- 
West, are so unsatisfactory and incomplete that it is 
almost impossible to enter more extensively into the nar- 
ration of facts bearing on this interesting subject of 
inquiry. With further developments made in the works 
of the early missionaries (some in manuscript) which are 
now and then being discovered in the libraries on the 
Continent of Europe, no doubt most important informa- 



OF THE MISGISSIPPI. 85 

tion will be obtained, and the labors of the student of the 
history of this period will be greatly facilitated.* 



CHAPTER YIII. 

"We have already mentioned that, in the year 1712, 
Crozat obtained from the French government the exclu- 
sive privilege of trading with Louisiana for a period of 
sixteen years. The crown of France was then engaged 
in hostile preparations for the part it was taking in the 
affairs of the Spanish succession, and but little attention 
was directed to the colonization of its territories in the 
southern part of this Continent. Government relied more 
on the energies of private associations, or individual 
enterprise, to carry out its plans for the development of 
the resources of this country ; and it was with this view 
that it delegated a part of its authority to a French 
mercliant, who had acquired a large fortune in his com- 
mercial undertakings, and who had already been of great 
service to the government in bringing into France a 
considerable quantity of the precious metals when her 
finances were being nearly exhausted, and she stood 
greatly in need of such assistance. This merchant was 
Crozat. He had been named secretary and counselor of 
the royal household, and held an important place in the 
department of finances. To the exclusive grant with 
which he had been invested of trading with the colony, 



* We read in the public journals a short time ago of the discovery of 
several old manuscripts of the missionaries in a library belonging to the 
Dominican Friars, in Rome. It would be worth while for any one to 
make further researches in the libraries in Continental Europe. He 
would no doubt obtain a mass of information which would be of great 
interest to the American reader. 



86 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

was added the privilege of exploring and wording what- 
ever mines might be found, and Crozat set about the 
performance of his task with his mind intent on the 
great advantages which would spring from the enterprise. 
Louis the Fourteenth named M. de la Motte Cadillac 
Governor, in place of M. de Muys, who died on his way 
to America. M. Duclos had the office of commissaire 
ordonnateur (a commissioner with extended authority, 
but subordinate to that of the Governor), in the place 
of M. d'Artaguette, who had returned to France; and a 
Superior Council was established for three years, com- 
posed of these two functionaries and a clerk, with power 
to add to their number. This council was a general 
tribunal for civil and criminal matters, with an unlimit- 
ed jurisdiction as to the amount involved or the nature 
of the ofiense. Their proceedings were to be regulated 
by the customs of Paris.* M. de la Motte Cadillac dis- 
embarked in Louisiana in the year 1713, and in order to 
give him an interest in the commerce of the colony, 
Crozat had associated him as a partner in the concern. 
At that period Louisiana was only looked upon as a 
gi-eat entrejpot for commerce with the neighboring coun- 
tries, but little wealth was found within its borders, and 
the people were in a depressed condition, arising out of 
the difficulty of finding a market for their small surplus 
products. Crozat and Cadillac were alive to the emer- 
gency ; they loaded a vessel with difierent products for 



* The customs of Paris were certain traditionary regulations, which, 
from their antiquity, had obtained the force of law within the prevote 
or vicoMTE of the city of Paris, and were, I believe, reduced to writing 
under the reign of Charles the Seventh of France. They are to this day 
in force in the Province of Lower Canada, and form the whole of the 
municipal law of that country. They are justly esteemed as an ex- 
cellent legal code by both Frencli and English lawyers. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 8Y 

Yera Cruz ; but the Yiceroy of Mexico, acting under 
that exclusive commercial policy which was tlien in full 
vigor, issued an order to prevent the disembarkation of 
the cargo, and directed that the vessel should withdraw 
from the harbor. Notwithstanding the result of this 
first attempt, Cadillac was not discouraged, and resolved 
to make a trial by land. He chose M. Juchereau de 
St. Denis, an intrepid Canadian voyageur, who had 
been in Louisiana for about fourteen years.* This trav- 
eler made two voyages in Mexico, and after having 
encountered several adventures of a rather romantic 
character, he returned from his second journey in April, 
1719, having accomplished but little during the excur- 
sion. While the Governor of Louisiana was seeking 
for a market for the surplus products of the colony, or 
the goods which he had brought with him from France, 
he also sent emissaries to trade with the Natchez and 
other tribes on the Mississippi, among whom they found 
several Englishmen from Virginia, who were estab- 
lished in that quarter, and w^ho had as much difiiculty 
in quelling the turbulent spirit of the Chickasaws as 
their own countrymen had in their previous relations 
with the Iroquois, or Five Nations. The same contest 
which had been so frequently witnessed between rival 
tribes in the north w^as now being carried on in the 
south ; and while some were friendly, and actuated by 
proper motives in their relations with the Europeans, 
others were found who w^ere inclined to pursue a con- 
trary course, and to visit the aggressions of their neigh- 
bors with unrelenting lury. On the one hand we find, 
about this time (1720), several tribes, with the Alaba- 
mous and the Choctaws, making excursions into the 



* Le Page Dupratz's work. 



88 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

Carollnas, and committiDg the most frightful ravages ; 
while, on the other, the Natchez contemplated the de- 
struction of their French neighbors, which was only 
prevented by the energy and promptitude with which 
the Governor acted. It was on this occasion that the 
Natchez found themselves compelled to make amends 
for their conduct ; for, with the force which De Bienville, 
who was in command in this campaign, had with him, 
he made these savages erect a fort in the very midst of 
their village, to serve as a protection for those whom they 
had intended to destroy. It was the first act of humilia- 
tion to which the chief of the Natchez was obliged to 
submit ; and it must have wounded his pride to find 
himself reduced to such subjection, especially for one 
who pretended to be descended from the sun, and who 
bore the name as a mark of his superiority among the 
tribes, and as a reflection of the light of that great lumi- 
nary among the benighted nations of America. This 
fort, at Natchez on the Mississippi, was built on an 
eminence of two hundred feet in height, and was called 
Rosalie^ after the name of Madame de Pont char train, 
whose husband, being a minister of state, was the guard- 
ian and protector of the Lemoine family, from which De 
Bienville sprung. It was in the following year (1715) 
that M. de Tisne founded Natchitoches, now a rich and 
flourishing city on Red river, in Louisiana. 

Notwithstanding this success against the Indian tribes, 
Crozat's prospects in Louisiana were becoming every 
day more desperate; he had hardly been there four years, 
when he observed the little commerce, that he found on 
his arrival, in a languishing state. The monopoly with 
which the French King had invested him, seemed to 
crush all spirit of enterprise among the people, for be- 
fore his arrival, the inhabitants of Mobile, and of the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 0^ 

Island of Daiiphiny, exported provisions, timber, and 
furs to Pensacola, the Islands of Martinique, St. Do- 
mingo, and to France, and received back in exchange, 
the merchandise and other articles, which they required 
to trade with the Indians; but Crozat had no sooner 
exercised the exclusive privileges granted to hira by the 
French Government, than they were obliged to abandon 
this, their only source of trade, and hence, their de- 
pressed condition, a few years after his arrival among 
them. There w^ere no longer to be seen any vessels ar- 
riving from, or sailing to, the West India Islands, and 
Crozat prohibited all commerce with the Spaniards at 
Pensacola, so that they were restricted in the use of 
specie, which they obtained in the trade with them, and 
they were not allowed to traffic excepting with Crozat's 
agents, and at prices which were fixed by them. The 
price of furs was fixed so low, that they directed their 
attention to dealing with the Canadian traders, who gave 
them higher prices, and this hitherto profitable branch of 
Colonial commerce, which had enriched the people of 
Louisiana now sought out other channels, in which more 
remunerating prices could be obtained for these products. 
Crozat could not fail to perceive the altered state of 
aflairs in the Colony, and he addressed several remon- 
strances to the French Government, which met with no 
attention whatsoever. Having made heavy advances to 
promote the prosperity of the country, and finding all his 
endeavors to carry on a profitable trade with Mexico had 
failed, disconcerted with the state of apathy which seemed 
to exist among the Colonists, and alarmed at his future 
prospects, Crozat adopted the resolution of surrender- 
ing to the French Government, all the privileges which 
were granted to him by the Koyal Charter, which he ac- 
cordingly did, and thus this monopoly ceased, which was 
8 



90 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

certainly attended with very disastrous results to the 
Colony. 

'No sooner was this monopoly surrendered into the 
hands of the French Government, than another and a 
more exclusive one was established, certainly not more 
fortunate in its results, but exercising a more immediate 
and important bearing on the prospects and fortunes of the 
French Colonists in America. The establishment of the 
great "Western Company," which was to immortalize the 
name of John Law, and to connect it with schemes in- 
volving the ruin of many a family, was the next measure 
adopted by the French Government, with a view to promote 
the colonization of Louisiana. How far this was adapted 
to forward the objects for which it was established, has 
become matter of general history, and the failure of the 
scheme, while it was felt more seriously in Europe, 
operated greatly to retard the advancement of the French 
Colonies in America. The great '^Mississippi bubble" as 
it was called, was a plain, palpable failure, but as it had 
a wonderful effect, in directing public attention to the 
affairs of the New "World, its plan and ultimate opera- 
tion are worthy of being mentioned. 

A Scotch adventurer, by the name of John Law, being 
desirous of attracting public attention by some grand 
scheme, in which he was to take a prominent part, availed 
himself of the deplorable state of tlie French finances, to 
attain the object, which he had in view. Naturally of 
an ardent temperament and great genius, he had applied 
himself to the study of the science of political economy, 
and in the depressed state of financial afiairs in France, 
he conceived that that country was the fittest scene to 
commence his labors. Accordingly, hither he repaired, 
and with the sanction of the then Regent he began the 
establishment of a Bank, in the year 1616, consisting of a 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 91 

capital formed of twelve hundred shares, at a thousand 
crowns {ecus) each. With the knowledge he had obtain- 
ed from his previous studies in a science, which had not 
then been dignified by the application of such minds, as 
Turgot and Smith, he appeared before the reigning 
monarch in France, as a person who could retrieve the 
country from all its embarrassments; and his schemes, 
plausible at first, w^ere received with great favor by the 
government. What an unexpected, and almost infallible 
remedy his project appeared to be, to sink the national 
debt of France, wdiich had increased to such an enormous 
sum, that the government was on the verge of bankruptcy, 
and the confidence of the people in its stability was all 
but lost ? The paper money, and the imaginary gold and 
silver mines of Louisiana, were to be the grand panacea 
for all the evils under which France labored. We can 
only account for the readiness, with which these schemes 
wxn*e adopted and so favorably received at the time, by 
the deplorable state to which France was reduced, and 
these illusions, which would have vanished at any other 
period as so many idle dreams of the imagination, w^ere 
eagerly seized upon by the King, the Ministers, and 
people, and even spread abroad, among neighboring 
nations. They only show how credulous is the human 
mind in moments of difiiculty and danger, and how easily 
the most hopeless project is adopted to afibrd relief to 
temporary evils. Such was Law's system, and such it 
turned out to be. Alluring in its prospects, and holding 
out hopes of the acquisition of enormous wealth, from the 
existence of fabulous mines of the precious metals along 
the shores of the Mississippi, thousands were found, who 
readily embarked in the undertaking, and thousands met 
w^ith a disastrous fate, involving their families and them- 
selves in ruin. To the acute and penetrating qualities of 



92 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

Law's mind, he saw at once, that he might work on 
the foundation, which had been laid by other travelers 
and writers in America, and the superstructure which he 
raised, on which the too credulous people gazed with admi- 
ration, and which they thought would be enduring, w^as 
nevertheless doomed to fall to the ground with a crash, 
w^hicli 'would involve all in its ruins. 

Ponce de Leon had no sooner reached the shores of 
Florida in 1512, than he spread a report abroad, that the 
country was filled with precious metals. Neither Phi- 
lippe de Narvaez, nor Ferdinand de Soto had discovered 
any gold mines, although they had been for years in 
search of them. The French and the Spaniards had 
made many unsuccessful attempts to seek for riches in 
the bowels of the earth, and at this period, but vague 
suspicions were entertained in America, even among 
those who were most sanguine at first, of the existence 
of mines in Louisiana, or the colonies adjacent thereunto, 
but in Europe a contrary opinion had alwaj'S prevailed ; 
they fancied in their imaginations, that some day or 
other, the earth would yield up its wealth, and the people 
of Europe would be enriched by the enormous quantity 
of the precious metals, which would be brought from 
America. How idle the hope! how fatal the delusion' 
yet John Law found in the very existence of that belief, 
all the success which he expected from his visionary 
schemes. 

The new^ banking institution which he established, 
served as a means to prop up, for a time, the public credit, 
and it certainly did some good in meeting its obligations, 
and was a source of great convenience, but its operations 
were necessarily limited, and the thouglits of its projector 
were directed more than ever to the gold mines of Louisi- 
ana, and the wealth he expected in that quarter. In the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 93 

year 1717, the "Western Company" {Comjpagyiie d^ 
Occident) was again re-established, with Law for its 
director, and Louisiana was ceded to the Company with 
otlier privileges, including the tobacco trade and the 
commerce w4th Senegal. From the unlimited terms of 
the charter, it was intended, as at first in Crozat's case, 
to be a monopoly, and it is impossible to say whether it 
was attended with advantage or disadvantage in the then 
state of the colony. In Crozat's case, it had certainly 
proved unsuccessful, but the Colony had become so re- 
duced, that scarcely anything could render the condition 
of the people v/orse. 

However it might be, the shares of the Western Com- 
pany were paid for in State notes (billets d^ Etat)^ which 
were taken at j?ar, although they were not worth more 
than fifty per cent, in commerce. In a moment, the 
capital of a hundred millions was taken up, each being 
anxious to be the holder of paper scrip, wdiich they ex- 
pected would be shortly paid in gold and silver from the 
mines of Louisiana. The creditors of the Government, 
who thought they were ruined by the enormous deprecia- 
tion of the national finances, eagerly laid hold of this 
speculation as their only means of safety. Rich men 
embarked nearly all their property in the undertaking, 
and men of all classes and ranks in society united in 
availing themselves of its probable advantages. Not 
satisfied with holding shares in this great Mississippi 
bubble, they directed their attention to acquiring landed 
estates in the South, and the people of France, Switzer- 
land and England vied with each other to send the greatest 
number of emigrants to the land of promise, where, after 
three years' service, to defray the expenses of the voyage, 
hopes were held out to them that they w^ould become 
proprietors, and have a permanent interest in the soil. 



94 HISTORY OF THE VALI.EY 

In the meantime, the Governor and chief Commissioner 
of Louisiana had been removed from office, and M. de 
I'Espinay succeeded M. de la Motte Cadillac and M. 
Hubert took Duclos' place; some time after, M. de Bien- 
ville was appointed Commander-in-Chief of all Louisiana. 
The French then occupied Biloxi, the island of Dauphine, 
Mobile, jS'atchez, and Natchitoches on Red Eiver. They 
had also commenced establishments in other parts of the 
country. Biloxi had become the chief place of business, 
and the port of Isle Dauphine was abandoned for the 
more convenient location at Yessel Island, {Isle aux 
Yaisseaux). All these places were situated on or near 
the sea-shore, thus showing that the early settlers placed 
more dependence on the arts of commerce than on agri- 
cultural pursuits ; the country near Biloxi and the sea, 
being unfit fur such a purpose. At this period (1717), 
the attention of the colonists was directed to the choice 
of a location for a city, on the banks of the Mississippi, 
and they selected a spot on the left shore, about thirty 
leagues from the sea, which De Bienville had before sur- 
veyed, and which he thought was the most favorable 
location for a great commercial emporium. In that year, 
this military officer, with a few poor carpenters and other 
artisans, went there and laid the foundations of a city, 
w^hich, even to the present day, is the chief commercial 
metropolis of the South, and which he named New 
Orleans, in honor of the Duke of Orleans, then Regent 
of France. M. de Pailloux w^as named Governor of the 
place, and it was only in the following year (1718), that 
the first vessel arrived in the port of New Orleans, where 
they were surprised to find sixteen feet of water in the 
shallowest part of the Mississippi. It was not then gen- 
erally believed that the river was navigable so high up for 
vessels of a large class. It was only in the year 1722, 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 95 

that the seat of Government was transferred to New 
Orleans, a delay which was partly attributable to the re- 
luctance of the colonists to lose sight of the sea, and to go 
into the interior of the country. 

The " Western Company" was no sooner in possession 
of Louisiana, than they began to organize a regular 
Government, and to encourage an extensive system of emi- 
gration, for the purpose of settling the country and 
working those mines, the produce of which, they expected 
would liquidate the national debt of France, which had 
increased to such an immense sum, that fears were enter- 
tained for the safety of the monarchy, and the stability 
of the empire. In the new administration, De Bienville 
was named Governor-General, and Chief Director of the 
affairs of the Company in America ; M. de Pailloux was 
appointed Major-General with M. Dugue de Boisbriand, 
as Commander in Illinois, and M. Diron, brother of the 
old Chief Commissioner, as Inspector-General of the 
military forces. 

Louisiana was ceded to the Company in the year 1717, 
and in the following spring, eight hundred colonists em- 
barked at Rochelle, on board of three vessels for that 
country. There were several gentlemen and old officers 
on board of these vessels, amongst whom was M. Lepage 
Dupratz, whose interesting memoirs of the history of the 
South and West have already been mentioned in this 
w^ork. These emigrants were dispersed in different sec- 
tions of the Colony. The gentlemen and officers had left 
their native country, in the hope of obtaining large con- 
cessions of land, wherein they wished to establish the 
feudal tenure, and to live as noblemen and lords of the 
manor, a system of seigniorial tenure which had been 
before introduced into Canada. Law himself showed the 
example ; he obtained a grant of land of four square leagues 



96 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

in Arkansas, which was erected into a Ducliy, and he 
assembled fifteen hundred men, Germans and French, 
from the Provinces to inhabit the territory ; he intended 
also sending six thousand Germans from the Palatinate, 
to serve as vassals under this new tenure. But it was at 
this period (1720), that the edifice which he had erected 
with such care, fell to the ground ; \lie vast schemes he had 
formed for ameliorating the financial condition of France 
proved abortive, and there arose a storm in that country, 
and its colonies in America, which, as a whirlwind, swept 
everything before it, and involved the rich and the poor, 
the high and the low, the metropolitan and the colonist, 
in one common ruin, and shook the foundations of public 
and private fortunes, in the Old and the New Worlds. 
Its disasters fell heavily on Louisiana. The Western 
Company was still sending an immense number of emi- 
grants to America, and many were on their journey when 
the celebrated " Mississippi bubble ^' burst, and of course 
they were left without means to provide for their wants on 
their arrival in this new country. They w^ere disembarked 
on the sterile shores of Biloxi, after having suffered the 
fatigue of a long sea voyage ; and here they were left un- 
provided for, and without being able to obtain a livelihood. 
Kever before the year 1721, when this occurred, were the 
Colonists so numerous ; there were not sufiicient vessels at 
Biloxi to send them up the Mississippi ; provisions failed ; 
numbers were without food to eat, and more than five 
hundred died of starvation, of whom two hundred be- 
longed to Law's establishment. Fear and melancholy 
operated on the minds of the Colonists, disunion and 
discord followed in their train, and companies were formed, 
(a Swiss company in particular), who, with their ofiicers 



* Charlevoix, " Journal Historique. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 97 

at their head, left the Colony in disgust and went over to 
Carolina. 

It was in consequence of these disasters that the Colon- 
ists made up their minds to abandon Biloxi, where they 
had met wdth nothing but misfortunes, and to select New 
Orleans as their place of residence. In a short time they 
became more reconciled to their embarrassments and 
privations, and set about looking for favorable locations 
where they might depend for awhile on the pursuits of 
agriculture and the chase for subsistence. It was in this 
manner that several settlements, now flourishing, were 
at first established. Had it not been for the disasters 
at Biloxi many years might have elapsed before the 
Colonists would have emigrated to the shores of the Mis- 
sissippi ; and, as it turned out, these new settlements 
progressively advanced until they became permanent 
places for business, and the centers of a large commer- 
cial and agricultural population. The historian of the 
Indies, the celebrated Abbe Raynal, who regards emi- 
gration on an extensive scale as the worst means for 
making a country thrive, views these gradual and pro- 
gressive movements as the certain indications of a well- 
founded prosperity, and of the rapid improvement of a 
new country. Beside the four or five principal towns 
established at different periods by the French, they laid 
the foundations of settlements at Yazou, Baton Rouge, 
Bayou-goula, Ecores-blancs, at Pointe-coupee, Black 
river, Pasca-goula, and even as far as Illinois. Most 
of these places continue to thrive, and are now important 
locations for business. 

Law's scheme had failed, and the political economists 
of Europe were engaged in disputes as to the wisdom of 
the plan he had formed for ameliorating the financial 
condition of France, amongst whom Raynal and Barbe 



98 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

Marbois took opposite sides. The discussion was at- 
tended with very little benefit, inasmuch as the evils 
which sprung from the system were felt by the people, 
and were the best arguments to convince them of the 
utter absurdity of the project. At this crisis in the 
history of the New World events were transpiring in 
Europe which had an important bearing on the afikirs of 
America, and to these it will be necessary to direct our 
attention. 



CHAPTEK IX. 

In the month of August, 1718, the celebrated qua- 
druple alliance had been formed between the four great 
powers of Europe. The peace of Europe had been estab- 
lished, as it was supposed, on a solid and permanent 
basis, when, through the intrigues of the celebrated 
" Monk of Parma," Alberoni, the minister of Philip Y, 
the flames of war were again illumined on the European 
Continent, and France prepared for the contest with 
Spain. The circumstances which gave rise to this war 
partook somewhat of a romantic interest, and are de- 
tailed at length in the histories of that period. The 
ambitious designs of Alberoni had been frustrated by 
the discovery of secret dispatches in the possession of 
the Abbe of Porto-Carrero, who had been intercepted 
on his way through the mountain passes of the Sierra- 
Morena to confer with the Spanish minister. England 
had also taken umbrage at the proffered support which 
Alberoni had promised to the young pretender. Prince 
Charles, and, under color of being a party to the alliance, 
willingly united with France to crush the ambitious 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 99 

projects of the cardinal-minister of Spain. M. de Ser- 
igny was sent to America, with three vessels, to take 
possession of Pensacola, a Spanish port, which was much 
needed by France on account of its proximity to Louis- 
iana, and its being so easily accessible for purposes of 
trade with the West India Islands. Don John Peter 
Matamoras was in command of the garrison. The place, 
being attacked by land by seven hundred Canadians, 
French, and Indians, under the orders of M. de Chateau- 
guay, and by sea by M. de Serigny, surrendered (1719), 
after a slight resistance, and the garrison and part of 
the inhabitants embarked on board of two French vessels 
for Flavana. On their journey thither they fell in with the 
Spanish fleet, which took possession of them, and carried 
them as prizes into the port which they had expected 
to enter as conquerors. 

The news of the surrender of Pensacola created a 
great sensation in New Spain and Mexico. The Yice- 
roy, the Marquis of Valero, dispatched a squadron, con- 
sisting of twelve vessels of war, and carrying eight hun- 
dred and fifty men, under the command of Don Alphonso 
Carrascosa, to invest the town. At the sight of the 
Spanish fleet a part of the garrison deserted to the 
enemy, while M. de Chateauguay was also obliged to 
capitulate. Some of those who had surrendered w^ere 
enlisted in the Spanish service, and a number of the 
deserters were treated with great severity by Carrascosa, 
who confined them for a length of time in the holds of 
the vessels. Don Matamoras was re-established in com- 
mand of the garrison at Pensacola, with sufiicient troops 
to defend the town in case of another attack. 

After this victory the Spanish Yiceroy resolved to 
drive away the French from their possessions in Amer- 
ica and dispatched Don Carnejo with a suflScient force 



100 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

to effect this object. Don Carrascosa was sent round to 
the Island of Dauphine and Mobile with a similar pur- 
pose in view; but both these expeditions were unsuccess- 
ful, and the Spaniards suffered nothing but disasters. 
A detachment of troops, forming part of Carrascosa's 
command, was completely routed by M. de Yilinville, at 
Mobile, while Carrascosa himself was repulsed at Guil- 
lory, a small island near the Isle Dauphine, around 
which he had been reconnoitering, to attempt to gain a 
favorable opportunity to attack the French. The brave 
Serigny was his competitor on this occasion, and, with 
nearly equal forces, compelled the Spanish general to 
depart from the island. 

The French, having been successful in their hostile 
measures against the Spaniards, now became in their 
turn the aggressors. De Bienville again invested Fensa- 
cola by land, and the brave Count de Champmelin at- 
tacked it by sea. The combat was of short duration. 
Carrascosa had attempted to blockade the entry of the 
port with his fleet, and prepared for the contest. The 
French vessels poured a brisk cannonade into the sides 
of the Spanish frigates, and in a short time their flags 
were lowered, and the French were the conquerors. De 
Bienville continued firing upon the town during the 
whole of the night, and on the following morning it 
surrendered to the enemy. There were from twelve to 
fifteen hundred men made prisoners of war, among whom 
were several officers. The French dismantled a part of 
the fortifications, and left a small garrison in charge of 
the remainder. 

It was after the termination of this war that Louis the 
Fifteenth thought fit to commend, in praiseworthy terms, 
the conduct of those Canadians who had served in Lou- 
isiana. While the colonists who had emigrated from 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 101 

France were always discontented at the state of things 
existing in that country, and were daily deserting to 
join the English in the neighboring colonies, the Cana- 
dians remained faithful adherents to the French crown in 
America, and were those on whom chief reliance was 
placed whenever it became necessary to assume a hostile 
attitude, either against internal or external foes. De 
Bienville, De Serigny, De St. Denis, De Yilinville, and 
De Chateauguay were Canadians by birth or by descent, 
and, as it has already been shown, distinguished them- 
selves on several occasions, at very critical periods, in the 
French colonial history of America, and were intrusted 
by the French government with high and commanding 
offices. Mr. Bancroft has paid them a well-deserved 
compliment in his work on the History of the United 
States, and other writers have united in giving them 
credit for the bravery they evinced on several very try- 
ing occasions, and for the intrepidity and daring they 
manifested, either as pioneers in clearing the forest, or as 
warriors on the field of battle. De Serigny was named 
captain of a French frigate, St. Denis was made a mem- 
ber of the order of St. Louis, and De Chateauguay was 
placed in command of a garrison at St. Louis of Mobile. 

The contest was over; the war between France and 
Spain was brought to a termination. Alberoni, dis- 
graced, was escorted by French troops to the confines of 
Italy, where he ended his days in obscurity, after having 
embroiled Europe in all the horrors of war. Peace was 
declared on the ITth. of February 1720, and the con- 
tending parties laid down their arms in the Eastern and 
Western hemispheres, having abandoned all that each 
had acquired in the latter, during the war, including 
Pensacola, for the possession of which such sanguinary 
contests had been waged in the early periods of the cam- 



102 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

paign. Pensacola again became part of the Spanish 
domains in America. 

This treaty of peace was soon followed by one with the 
Chickasaws and the Natchez, who had taken advantage 
of the war to commit hostilities against Louisiana. The 
colony was in a state of tranquillity, which it had not 
enjoyed for several years, when the people were again 
exposed to heavy disasters, arising from the effects of a 
terrific storm, which laid desolate many of the towns, and 
several habitations in different parts of the Colony. 
This occurred on the 12th of September 1722, and its 
effects w^ere more seriously felt by the inhabitants of New 
Orleans and Biloxi, than elsewhere. They were obliged 
to re-build these cities, which suffered so much that 
scarcely a house was left standing. 

The year 1726 was the last one of De Bienville's ad- 
ministration, which had been rendered so difficult in con- 
sequence of the errors committed by Crozat, and the 
failure of Law's scheme. Notwithstanding these disad- 
vantages the Colonists had been able to contend success- 
fully against the aggressions of Spain and to preserve 
their possessions in America. De Bienville returned to 
France and was succeeded in the administration of the 
government, by M. de Perrier. At this period, there 
was a regular government organized in Louisiana, and it 
does not fall within the scope of this work to detail 
minutely the events that occurred during each successive 
administration. What had a direct tendency to promote 
the cause of European colonization along the shores of 
that river, has been noticed, but it would occupy more 
space than could be assigned within the limits of this 
publication, to give an account, however succinct or brief 
it might be of what followed after the establishment 
of a regular government in Louisiana. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 103 

There is, however, an event of some importance, which 
occurred during this period (1729), which it would not be 
right to pass over in silence. I allude to the "Natchez 
massacre." 

The " Western Company" had given place to the 
" Company of the Indies," which was established in 
1723, and of which the Duke of Orleans was made 
governor. Their charter granted privileges, which ex- 
tended over different European possessions, in Asia, 
Africa, and America, and while they exercised temporary 
sovereignty, in various parts of the w^orld, their labors in 
America seem, by all accounts, to have been productive 
of but little benefit to the Colonists. Indeed, the little 
good, which the Western Company had been able to do, 
as far as the cause of colonization was concerned, might 
compare favorably with what appears to have been effected 
by the establishment of the Company of the Indies, in 
Louisiana. In the collisions, which frequently occurred, 
arising out of the division of the powers of government, the 
local administration of affairs in Louisiana, was consider- 
ably weakened, and the Indian tribes took advantage 
of it. 

Notwithstanding the colonists thought that they had 
reduced the savages to a state of complete subjection, 
from tlie length of time they had been at peace with each 
other, they were astonished to find, that a plot had been 
for some time in existence, either to exterminate them or 
drive them away from the colony. While we cannot but 
admire the efforts, w^hich the aboriginal inhabitants of 
this Continent have made to preserve their sovereignty, 
which was destined to fall before the march of progressive 
civilization, and while doubts might well be entertained 
as to the right of Europeans to dispossess them of the 



104: HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

soil, without adequately remunerating them, or giving 
them other hunting-grounds, whereon to gain a precarious 
subsistence, nevertheless, this " l^atchez massacre" may 
be regarded as such an act of perfidy and cruelty toward 
their French neighbors, as to entirely deprive them of 
sympathy. The blow was to be struck simultaneously 
throughout the colony, and for the wrongs which they 
thought they endured, their vengeance knew no limits. 
Every man, woman, and child, were doomed to utter de- 
struction; their habitations were to be razed to the ground, 
and not a vestige was to be left of French sovereignty in 
America. The French had always been on good terms 
with most of the Indian tribes, as the Illinois, the Arkan- 
sas, and the Tonicas ; but the Iroquois and Chickasaw 
tribes had been their inveterate enemies. It has been 
said, by some ^Titers, that the English Colonists in Caro- 
lina, and along the shores of the Atlantic, had sent secret 
emissaries among these tribes, to excite them to acts of 
hostility against the French, but I am inclined to doubt 
this assertion. The English, no doubt, viewed with a 
jealous eye the occupation of this country by the French 
from the shores of the Ohio, to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
it might have been their policy to give the Indian tribes 
an unfavorable opinion of their French neighbors. But 
England w^as not then at war with France, and the Eng- 
lish Colonists feared too much the hostile incursions of 
the Abenaquis, the Ilurons, and other tribes, in the 
neighborhood of the French possessions in the North, to 
excite the savages to pursue the same course against the 
French Colonists in the South. 

While preparations were being made for the indiscri- 
minate massacre of the Europeans in Louisiana, the latter 
were, for some time, not aware of the extent of the con-' 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 105 

spiracy against them. They had heard of the existence 
of the plot, but they feigned that they were entirely igno- 
rant of it. The day was approaching, when the ax was 
to be raised and the fatal tomahawk to be used, to remove 
the scalps of so many of their countrymen. M. de Che- 
par was in command at Natchez. Although that officer 
had had a few quarrels with the Indians, they so far con- 
cealed their enmity, and acted with such dissimulation, 
that they made him believe they were his friends, and 
De Chepar was so anxious to avoid giving them the least 
cause for apprehension, of a change of his sentiments to- 
ward them, that he actually imprisoned seven Frenchmen 
who wished to arm themselves to be protected against 
surprise. He appeared to be actuated by such blind 
fatality, as to allow sixty savages to enter the fort, and 
to permit others to lodge with the Colonists, and even re- 
ceived some of them in his own house. This would 
hardly be believed, were it not that Charlevoix, a cotem- 
porary historian, positively asserts it. 

The conspirators were ready for action ; the day and 
the hour had been fixed, when the massacre was to be 
commenced, but the savages, who had now so far suc- 
ceeded as to enter the fort, and be in the midst of the 
Colonists, had their cupidity so much excited by the 
arrival of barges, laden with rich merchandise, for the 
garrison, that tliey resolved to strike the blow at that 
moment, and not to await the expiration of the time 
which had been fixed for the general massacre through- 
out the country. This precipitation, while it was fatal 
to those Colonists who w^ere at IN'atchez, was the means 
of saving others in the West and South from partial, if 
not from total annihilation. 

In order that the conspirators at Katchez might get 
possession of fire-arms to efiect their purpose, they feigned 



106 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

that they were preparing for a hunting expedition, to fur- 
nish game for the Commandant to treat his newly-arrived 
guests. They obtained guns and other munitions in the 
fort, and on the 28th of November, 1Y29, they scattered 
themselves abroad in the different houses of the inhabit- 
ants, taking care always to be in greater numbers than 
their victims, and remarking that they were going to hunt. 
They carried their dissimulation to such an extent, that 
they actually chanted a hymn in praise of M. de Chepar, 
when all at once there was silence, three shots of 
musketry were fired, which were the signals for a general 
onslaught. The savages rushed furiously on the French, 
and in this dreadful massacre, two hundred of them fell 
victims to the treachery and dissimulation of their perfidi- 
ous enemies. But about twenty were saved, and one 
hundred and fifty children, and sixty women were made 
prisoners. In this frightful encounter, there were instances 
of bravery amongst the French, which Charlevoix has not 
failed to mention. M. de la Loire des Ursins killed four 
Indians by his own hand, and the clerks in his store 
bravely defended themselves until the last man was killed. 
The Natchez lost only twelve men in this affair, so well 
were all the preparations made for the general massacre. 
During the engagement, " the Sun," or the Chief of 
the Natchez, was seated near a tobacco warehouse,* be- 
longing to the company of the Indies, awaiting patiently 
the termination of this tragedy. At intervals, the heads 
of those who had fallen were brought and placed at his 
feet, among others, that of M. de Chepar, the person in 
command of the garrison. The bodies of the victims 
were suffered to remain without burial, and became the 
prey of vultures and dogs, while the women and children, 

* Some authors say, " on the roof of the tobacco warehouse." 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 107 

who had been taken prisoners, were exposed to the cruelty 
of these ferocious savages, and having suffered every in- 
dignity, were finally sent into the interior, to become 
the slaves of neighboring tribes. 

Such was the massacre of the French, of the 28th of 
November, 1729. The Abbe Eaynal gives a rather differ- 
ent account of this massacre from that of Charlevoix — 
both, however, agree in the main facts, but I prefer the 
latter, for the reason I have already assigned. 

Of course De Perrier exercised summary vengeance 
against the perpetrators of this horrid butchery. He noti- 
fied the people at the different French settlements to be on 
their guard, and sent an expedition against the ISTatchez, 
whom he compelled to surrender, and who, with their 
Chief, " the Sun^^ were sent into captivity. 

We have thus detailed, as we believe, almost every 
leading event in the history of the discovery of the valley 
of the Mississippi, up to the passing of the Treaty of Aix- 
la-Chapelle in the year 1718. 

Shortly after this period, the leading events on this 
Continent have been mentioned in connection with the 
name and services of our ancestors, the Anglo-Americans, 
on the shores of the Atlantic. To their achievements is 
the world indebted for the progress of that civilization 
which is daily extending throughout the length and breadth 
of this Continent. To the heroic conduct and intrepid 
bearing of those men who followed Colonel Pepperel to 
the gates of Louisbourg, was the Anglo-Saxon of Amer- 
ica, partly indebted for the expulsion of the French from 
their strongholds in this Western Hemisphere, and to the 
still nobler conduct and glorious career of the " Father 
OF HIS COUNTRY," was he indebted for their expulsion from 
the valley of the Mississippi. While the Treaty of Aix-la- 
Chapelle commemorates the achievements of the one, 



108 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

that of Fontainebleaii sheds glory and luster on the actions 
of the other. Their memories will forever be cherished 
in the hearts of their countrymen, and their images, like 
those of the warriors of old, will be placed in the vestibule 
of the domestic sanctuary, there to remain as memorials 
of the past, and as an encouragement for the future. 



CHAPTER X. 

YiKGiNiA was the country, whence emanated those 
ardent warriors and soldiers, whose brilliant achievements 
in the wilds of the West, cast such imperishable glory 
over the events of those days. From the Treat}^ of Aix- 
la-Chapelle to the peace of 1763, the western boundaries 
of Virginia extended to the domains of the vast Indian 
tribes, who wandered over all that tract of country hav- 
ing the mountains of the Alleghany for their eastern 
limits, and the boundless prairies to the West, whereon 
the white man trailed the footsteps of the Indian, in his 
efforts to secure Anglo-Saxon domination along the shores 
of the Ohio and the Mississippi. It was to the descend- 
ants of those men who emigrated from England, in the 
latter part of the sixteenth century, under the reign of 
Elizabeth, that we are indebted for those martial exploits 
which distinguished the campaign against the French in 
the war of 1755 : nor did they consider themselves en- 
gaged in a vain attempt to extend the power of England 
over the American wilderness ; they were even then 
actuated by too noble a spirit of independence to fight in 
any cause wherein a sense of right and justice did not 
impel them onward to military glory and success. Under 
the reign of James the First, and even during the stormy 
period of the Usurpation, the Virginian claimed the free- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 109 

dom and independence of all men, but which was more 
particularly the birthright of Americans; and when 
Cromwell, under the imposing title of Protector of the 
Republic, sent a squadron of vessels-of-war to reduce the 
refractory Colonists, he was glad to accede to terms of 
capitulation, which were signed by the commissioners in 
Virginia on the 12th March, 1651, and were afterward 
ratified by Cromwell in England.* From the very first 
article of the capitulation, it will be observed, that if 
Virginia embarked in the cause of colonization in the 
West, it was not to aggrandize England, but to secure her 
own interest and happiness. It is as follows : " Virginia 
and its inhabitants shall be under the dependence of the 
Republic of England, not as a conquered country, but as 
one which surrenders itself voluntarily, and they shall 
enjoy the same privileges and franchises, as the free people 
of England." 

As early as the year 1717, the struggle commenced 
between the two most powerful antagonistic nations of 
Europe, for supremacy in America. In that year the 
English extended their claims to the northward, while 
the French coiitended for the whole tract of country to 
the west of the Alleghanian Mountains. It was not till 
1751 that Fort Duquesne was built by M. de la Jonquiere, 
at the command of the Marquis du Quesne, then governor 
of Canada, t but long previously to that period they had 
erected a chain of trading-posts which answered all the 
purposes of military forts, on the lakes and rivers, with 

* Recherches sur les Etats Unis, pnblisTied in 1788, vol. 1, page 19, 
by M. Mazzei, who resided in Virginia, but afterward returned to France. 

t Journal of a tour into the territory northwest of the Alleghany 
Mountains, made in the spring of the year 1803, with a geographical and 
historical account of the State of Ohio, by Thaddeus Mason Harris. — 
Boston : 1805, page 40. 



110 HISTOEY OF THE VALLEY 

a view, it is said, to monopolize the trade with the Indi« 
ans, and to resist all attempts of their rivals to appropri- 
ate any share of it to themselves. It was not then 
believed that France would lay claim, by right of discov- 
ery, to the countries bordering on the Mississippi and the 
Ohio; for the English, even on that ground, were deter- 
mined to make good the pretensions they had always 
maintained, perhaps without foundation, of a prior dis- 
covery by Wood, in 1651, and by Bolt, in 16Y0. How- 
ever that question might be settled, it was not a war of 
conquest, it was one of national pride and ambition, 
which was about being transplanted from the sanguinary 
fields of Europe to the American forests. It was a war 
in which the feelings of the English people had become 
acerbated by the assistance which the French had given 
to the "youthful Pretender" to the British crown, and 
by a long series of both military and naval combats, both 
by sea and by land. Gradually, but imperceptibly, the 
representatives of each of these European powers were 
encroaching on the domains of the savage ; the English, 
impelled by the love of adventure and the desire for colo- 
nization; and the French to restrain their competitors 
within the limits of that tract of country lying between 
the Alleghanies and the Atlantic. The desire to monop- 
olize the Indian trade has been ascribed, by most writers, 
as that which engrossed the attention of these contending 
parties; but there were other and deeper causes at work; 
it was the struggle for supremacy in the New World, 
after the armies of both nations had laid down their arms 
in the Old, in the consciousness of each having gained 
the victory. Yet, under the ostensible guise of trading 
with the Indians, and under the assumed right of prior 
discovery, the English were quietly gaining possession of 
the soil, and supplanting their opponents in the vaUey of 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. Ill 

the Mississippi. It is said that in 1742 the country west 
of the mountains was visited by John Howard, of Vir- 
ginia, the first Englishman who had ever wandered 
beyond the great Appalachian chain. Conrad Weiser was 
afterward sent from Philadelphia with presents to the 
Indians at Logstown, an Indian village on the Ohio; this 
w^as in 1748, but the English claims rested upon rights 
which had been said to be acquired under the treaty with 
the Iroquois or Six Nations, at Albany, in the year 1684, 
and also on purchases made by the Virginians, at Lan- 
caster, in Pennsylvania, in 1744. Under this last treaty 
they had "recognized the king's right to all lands that 
are, or by his Majesty's appointment shall be, within the 
Colony of Virginia." It was about this time that the 
" Ohio Company " was formed, to which the king allowed 
the Colony of Virginia to grant a large extent of territory 
beyond the mountains. Other companies were formed 
about this period, all having in view the colonization of 
the West, and to which were granted thousands of acres 
of wild lands within the "Colony of Virginia." It will 
be remarked that these were not royal grants, but were 
local companies, organized by the Colonists, under the 
sanction of their legislature, and which were allowed by 
the king. The " Ohio Company " comprised among its 
members the name of George Washington, a name then 
but little known to fame, but which was afterward des- 
tined to become celebrated throughout the world. 

It will be remembered, that long before this period, the 
French had established trading-posts at Kaskaskia, Forts 
Crevecceur and St. Louis, and also at Vincennes and 
along the Wabash, but they had no military fort or any 
trading-post in those sections of the country whither the 
English were in the habit of resorting ; but in the year 
1744, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, who was then Governor- 



112 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

General of Canada, and Viceroy of New France, repre- 
sented to the French government the necessity of repel- 
ling the encroachments of the English, who wished to 
establish trading-posts among the Creeks. Yarions were 
the means employed by the French to resist these English 
aggressions, and while they were loath to resort to actual 
hostilities, they contented themselves by marking and 
defining the limits within which they contended the 
English should restrict themselves. In the Transactions 
of the American Antiquarian Society is mentioned the 
description of certain leaden plates, which were found 
at the mouth of the Muskingum, and on which were 
inscribed the claims of France to the territory in ques- 
tion, and bearing date in the month of August, 1749.* 
In that year the French began the work in earnest of 
exploring the Ohio, and ascertaining the limits and extent 
of the country, and the encroachments of their neighbors. 
The establishment of the Ohio Company with such a vast 
extent of territory, had incensed the Indian tribes against 
the English, and the French lost no opportunity to in- 
crease the animosity which the savages experienced on 
account of this large grant of land by the Virginia 
legislature. 

With the exception of the attack by the French and 
their Indian allies, on a blockhouse said to belong to the 
English on the Miami, in which the former were success- 
ful, and the visit of a few agents of the Ohio Company 
to their territories, nothing occurred of any importance 
between the years 1749 and 1753. 

It is pleasing, however, to refer to the events of that 
period, connected as they are with the earliest efibrts of 
our ancestors to repel the aggressions of a powerful mon- 

* It will be seen hereafter, that these plates were affixed by the orders 
of M. de Gallissoniere, Viceroy of Canada and New France. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 113 

archical government in the wilds of the West. The old 
colonists of Yirginia, from whom were sprung many of 
those hardy pioneers who first ventured beyond the hab- 
itations of civilized man to locate themselves in those 
sections of the country now forming Ohio and Kentucky, 
were unassisted by the power or the arms of England to 
forward their pretensions and assert their claims. It was 
only after blood had been shed on the shores of the Mo- 
nongahela, and Washington had evacuated Fort Neces- 
sity, a name which he himself had given to the garrison, 
to mark the trying circumstances in which he was placed, 
that the British government thought fit to assist the Col- 
onists in their endeavors to eradicate French power in 
America. France was then in possession of Canada, 
and enjoyed an unrestricted intercourse w^ith the powerful 
Indian tribes along the lakes and the Mississippi ; her 
garrisons were filled with arms and ammunition, and her 
soldiers were brave and well-disciplined. She had first 
erected a fort at Presqu'ile or Erie, and was gradually 
making her way toward the shores of the Ohio, when it 
fell to the lot of our heroes and soldiers to leave their 
quiet homes on the banks of James river, to struggle for 
ascendency against one of the most powerful nations in 
Christendom, on the shores of the Monongahela and the 
Ohio. 

These events have cast a halo of glory over the name 
and early services of our Washington; but when they are 
associated with the trials and difficulties that hardy little 
band must have sustained in the depths of the forest, at 
a distance from their homes, their families and kindred, 
our admiration of their military achievements must neces- 
sarily yield to that of their ardent efibrts to promote 
the cause of Anglo-American civilization in the valley of 
the Mississippi. The imprisonment of English traders, 
10 



114 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

the confiscation of their property, and the cruelty of the 
Indian tribes toward them, were quite enough to make 
the few English who had then crossed the Alleghanies, 
dread the power and the resources of the French; but 
when to these were added the privations and distress that 
must have accompanied a march through the untracked 
wilderness, the gallant men who accompanied Wasiiing- 
ton in the ascent of the Alleghanies, have just claims to 
the title of heroes.* 

The French were not inactive. In 1753 they began to 
erect new forts, and to form new establishments, in the 
neighborhood of their rivals, particularly at Crown Point, 
Niagara, Kiviere de Bceufs,t and at the junction of the 
Monongahela and Alleghany rivers. These encroach- 
ments naturally excited the suspicions of the English, 
who made repeated remonstrances to the court of France 
without eifect. In the meantime their rivals were pro- 
gressing with the establishment of their forts, and rein- 
forcing their garrisons, in the prospect of a speedy rupture 
between the two nations. Orders were sent out in 1751: 
to the Governors of the American Provinces directing 
them to drive away the French by force of arms from 
their strongholds ; and it was in this year that Washing- 
ton, then appointed to the rank of colonel, was detached 
from Virginia, with a force of four hundred men, to erect 

* The road is very rugged and difficult over the mountains, and we 
were often led to comment on the arduous enterprise of tliose by whom 
it was cut. Obliged to make a pass for his army and wagons " through 
unfrequented woods and dangerous defiles, over mountains deemed im- 
passable," the toil and fatigue of his pioneers and soldiers must have 
been indescribably great. But it was here that the youtliful Washington 
gathered some of his earliest laurels. — See Gen. Braddock's letter to Sir 
T. Robinson, June 5lh, 1775. 

t This must have been the old Fort Lebceuf, two miles east from 
Small Lake, mentioned by Harris, p. 37. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. Jl5 

military works on the banks of the Ohio. The events of 
this period have been detailed at length in every Amer- 
ican history, and the glorious achievements recorded in 
its annals, it will hardly be necessary to repeat. xVfter 
the capitulation at Fort Necessity, a truce seems appa- 
rently to have been effected ; but remonstrances did not 
cease to be poured in to the French government against 
the aggressions they were making in the neighborhood of 
the Alleghanies. It was, however, of temporary dura- 
tion ; and, while negotiations were going on, troops were 
sent by France to Canada and its western possessions, 
while General Braddock arrived with a considerable force 
from England. 

Thus commenced the "seven years' war" (although it 
was not formally declared until the following year), which 
was ostensibly begun to assert the rights of each nation 
to the possession of the territory icest of the mountains, 
but which was in fact a contest for supremacy throughout 
all the North American dominions. It began amidst the 
mountain-passes of the Alleghanies ; it ended on the 
Plains of Abraham. The struggle was of long duration, 
but it was effectual, and afforded a convincing proof of; 
the valor and prowess of English soldiers, and their su-^ 
periority over their French opponents. Nor in this trial 
at arms are we to obliterate the memory of the services 
which the ''old English colonists of America" rendered 
to their ancestors in their endeavors to destroy French 
domination in this country. How far they were repaid 
for those services, history has not failed to mention; 
and while the memory of their achievements will forever 
be fixed in the minds of their countrymen, it will be 
accompanied by the melancholy reflection that they after- 
ward met with nothing but contumely and insult from 
that very power, on whose behalf they were enlisted. 



116 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

The course of time and the progress of events have wiped 
away many of those asperities, which formerly existed 
between the people of America and the mother-country, 
but neither the one nor the other can ever obliterate from 
the hearts of Americans the memory of those unrequited 
services, which their gallant ancestors rendered on behalf 
of England in the wild solitudes of the West. It was 
neither the "stamp act" nor the "tea duty" which 
aroused the sense of wrong at the hands of England among 
the American people — these may have been the proxi- 
mate causes ; but there were others, more remote, which 
served to increase that feeling of indignation at the evils 
they had endured from their hard taskmasters. The 
Colonists contracted a debt of ten millions to assist Eng- 
land in the war of 1754, and, if we may judge from the 
remonstrances of our ancestors, whose memorials were 
sent home to the British Parliament, they felt the ingrati- 
tude of England in withholding payment of this debt, 
and the recognition of the many brilliant exploits they 
had performed during that memorable period. 

Negotiations between the two governments had turned 
out fruitless, and General Braddock had taken command 
of all the military forces in the colonies. The events of 
this period are too intimately connected with the history 
of the West to be passed over in silence, and although 
they have been fi-equently recited, they lose nothing of 
their enduring interest. The following abstract is taken 
from the works of Mr. Sparks, in his Appendix to the 
Writings of Washington. It being the most authentic 
account of the memorable defeat, it is here inserted : 

General Braddock landed in Virginia on the 20th 
February, 1755, with two regiments of the British army, 
from Ireland, — the forty- fourth and forty-eighth, — ^each 
consisting of five hundred men, one of them commanded 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 117 

by Sir Peter Halket, and the other by Colonel Dunbar. 
To these were joined a suitable chain of artillery, with 
military supplies and provisions. The General's first 
head-quarters were at Alexandria,* and the troops were 
stationed in that place and vicinity till they marched for 
Will's creek, where they arrived about the middle of 
May. It took four weeks to efiect that march. In letters 
written at Will's creek, General Braddock, with much 
severity of censure, complained of the lukewarmness of 
the Colonial governments and tardiness of the people in 
facilitating his enterprise, the dishonesty of agents, and 
the faithlessness of contractors. The forces which he 
brought together at Will's creek, however, amounted to 
somewhat more than two thousand effective men, of 
whom about one thousand belonged to the Royal regi- 
ments, and the remainder were furnished by the Colonies. 
In this number were embraced the fragments of two 
independent companies from New York, one of which 
was commanded by Captain Gates, afterward a Major- 
General of the Revolutionary war. Thirty sailors had 
also been granted for the expedition by Admiral Keppel, 
who commanded the squadron that brought over the two 
reo:iments. 

At this post the artillery were detained three weeks, 
nor could it then have moved, had it not been for the 
energetic personal services of Franklin, among the Penn- 
sylvania farmers, in procuring horses and wagons, to 
transport the artillery, provisions and baggage. 

The details of the march are well described in Colonel 

* At the commencement of the present century, Alexandria was a 
small town in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on the Virginia line. 
It contained between fifty and sixty dwelling-houses, and had a large 
and decent house for public worship. It is sixteen miles north-east 
from Wheeling. 



118 niSTOKY OF THE VALLEY 

Washington's letters. The army was separated into two 
divisions. Tlie advanced division, under General Brad- 
dock, consisted of twelve hundred men, beside officers. 
Ti»e other, under Colonel Dunbar, w^as left in the rear, to 
proceed by slower marches. On the eighth of July, the 
General arrived with h.is division, all in excellent health 
and spirits, at the junction of the Youghiogheny and Mo- 
nongahela rivers.* At this place, General Washington 
joined the advanced division, being but partially recovered 
from a severe attack of fever, wdiich had been the cause 
of his remaining behind. The officers and soldiers were 
now in the highest spirits, and firm in the conviction that 
they should, within a few hours, victoriously enter the 
walls of Fort Duquesne. 

The steep and rugged grounds on the north side of the 
Monongahela, prevented the army from marching in that 
direction, and it was necessary in approaching the fort, 
now about fifteen miles distant, to ford the river twice 
and march part of the way on the south side. Early on 
the morning of the 9th, all things were in readiness, and 
the whole train passed through the river, a little below the 
mouth of the Youghiogheny, and proceeded in perfect order 
along the southern margin of the Monongahela. f * * 

* In a geographical chart published in 1782, contained in Hilliard d' 
Auberteuil's work on America, tlie " Ville de la Reine," is placed at the 
junction of tliese two rivers, wliile Tlioinas Wightman, isj the cliart en- 
graved for Harris's Journal, published in 1805, places McKeesport at the 
junction, and Elizabethtown (Viile de la Reine of the French), a little 
lower down tlie river. In Wightman's chart. Turtle creek separates 
Braddock's field from the junction of the Youghiogheny with the Monon- 
gahela. Elizabethtown was called Alloquipas by the Indians. It is 
exceedingly difficult to verify the actual position of the array from the 
discrepancies existing in the charts of that day. — [Note by author of Hist. 
Val. Miss.] 

+ On both of the charts before mentioned, " Conemack old town," 
called ** Conuemaugh," in Wightman's chart, was the nearest settlement 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 119 

In this manner they marched forward till about noon, 
when they arrived at the second crossing place, ten miles 
from Fort Duquesne. They halted but a little time, and 
then began to ford the river and regain its northern bank. 
As soon as they had crossed, they came upon a level plain, 
elevated but a few feet above the surface of the river, and 
extending n rthward nearly half a mile from its margin. 
Then commenced a gradual descent at an angle of about 
three degrees, which terminated in hills of a considerable 
height at no great distance beyond. The road from the 
fording place to Fort Duquesne, led across the plain and 
up this ascent, and thence proceeded through an uneven 
country at that time covered with woods. 

By the order of march, a body of three hundred men, 
under Colonel Ga2;e, afterward General Gao-e, of Boston 
memory, made the advanced party, which was immediate- 
ly followed by another of two hundred. l^Qxt came the 
General with the columns of artillery, the main body of 
the army, and the baggage. At one o'clock the whole had 
passed the river, and almost at this moment, a sliarp firing 
was heard upon the advanced parties, who were now 

to the east. It was situated on the Kiskiminetas river, at the base of 
the Alleghar.ian range of mountains. This river ran between Mount 
Laurel and the Alleghanies. On the chart of 1782, there is no other 
settlement marked, w^ith the exception of Fort Ligonier, that must then 
have been in the possession of their enemies. Cannonsburg, to the west, 
is marked on Wightman's chart, but it was situated at a considerable 
distance from Braddock's field, and may have been settled long after the 
battle took place. Braddock's field is at the head of Turtle creek, seven 
miles from Pittsburgh. Here that brave but unfortunate General engaged 
a party of French and Indians, was repulsed, himself mortally wounded, 
and his army put to flight, July 9th, 1755. This is anticipating the order 
of events, but it is necessary for the correct understanding of the text. 
The geography of that part of the "West is interesting, as being the 
scenes of the first deeds of arms performed by Americans, and is worthy 
of attention. — [Note by author of Hist. Val. Miss.] 



120 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

ascending the hill, and had got forward about a hundred 
yards from the termination of the plain. A heavy dis- 
charge of musketry was poured in upon their front, which 
was the first intelligence they had of the proximity of an 
enemy, and this w^as suddenly followed by another on 
their right flank. They w^ere filled with great consterna- 
tion, as no enemy w^as in sight, and the firing seemed to 
proceed from an invisible foe. They fired in their turn, 
howx^ver, but quite at random, and obviously without 
efiect, as the enemy kept up a discharge in quick contin- 
ued succession. 

The General advanced speedily to the relief of these 
detachments ; but before he could reach the spot which 
they occupied, they gave way and fell back upon the 
artillery and the other columns of the army, causing ex- 
treme confusion, and striking the whole mass w4th such a 
panic, that no order could afterward be restored. The 
General and the officers behaved with the utmost courage, 
and used every effort to rally the men and bring them to 
order, but all in vain. In this state they continued nearly 
three hours, huddling together in confused bodies ; firing 
irregularly ; shooting dowm their own officers and men, 
and doing no perceptible harm to the enemy. The 
Virginia provincials were the only troops who seemed to 
retain their senses, and they behaved with a bravery and 
resolution worthy of a better fate. They adopted the 
Indian mode, and fought each man for himself behind a 
tree. This was prohibited by the General, who endeav- 
ored to form his men into platoons and columns, as if 
they had been maneuvering on the plains of Flanders. 
Meantime, the French and Indians, concealed in the 
ravines and behind trees, kept up a deadly and unceasing 
discharge of musketry, singling out their objects, taking 
deliberate aim, and producing a carnage almost unparal- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 121 

leled in the annals of modern warfare. More than half 
of the whole army which had crossed the river in so 
proud an array only three hours before, were killed or 
wounded ;* the General himself had received a mortal 
wound, and many of his best officers had fallen by his 
side. 

When the battle was over, and the remnant of Brad- 
dock's army had gained in their flight the opposite bank 
of the river. Col. Washington was dispatched by the 
General, to meet Col. Dunbar and order forward wagons 
for the wounded with all possible speed. But it w^as not 
till the 11th, after they had reached Gist's plantation 
with great difficulty, and much suffering from hunger, 
that any arrived. The General was at first brought off 
in a tumbril ; he was next put on horseback, but being 
unable to ride, was obliged to be carried by the soldiers. 
The}^ all reached Dunbar's camp, to which the panic had 
already extended, and a day was passed there in great 
confusion. The artillery was destroyed, and the public 
stores, and heavy baggage were burnt, by whose order 
was never known. They moved forward on the 13th, 
and that night General Braddock died, and was buried 
in the road, for the purpose of concealing his body from 
the Indians. The spot is still pointed out, within a few 
yards of the present National Koad, and about a mile 
west of the site of Fort Necessit}^ at the Great Meadows. 
Captain Stewart of the Virginia forces had taken particu- 
lar charge of him from the time he was wounded till his 
death. On the 17th the sick and wounded arrived at 
Fort Cumberland and were soon after joined by Colonel 
Dunbar with the remaining fragments of the army. 

* Pouchot, a French writer, in his memoirs of the wars, says that many 
were drowned in the Monongahela. 
11 



122 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

The French sent out a party as far as Dunbar's camp, 
and destroyed everything that was left. Col. Washing- 
ton, being in very feeble health, proceeded in a few days 
to Mount Yernon. 

Such is Mr. Sparks's account of the " memorable de- 
feat;" he gives the French version of the battle and the 
substance of a letter, which Colonel Orme wrote to the 
Governor of Pennsylvania, detailing at length the mili- 
tary movements. 

From the many descriptions of this eventful battle, 
which fill the pages of American history, all agreeing in 
the main facts, but difiering perhaps in the details, it is 
evident that Braddock was unfit for the exigencies of 
the scenes in which he was engaged. Fresh from the 
battle-fields of Europe, his military skill was of no ac- 
count in carrying on war against predatory tribes in the 
forest, and maneuvering in platoons and columns, was of 
no avail against the fierce savage, bent on revenge, and 
relying on all the arts of deceit and stratagem to gain 
the vantage ground over his enemy. Military men in 
Europe and America, blamed Braddock for not having 
sent out scouts to reconnoiter the position of the enemy, 
and even Colonel Washington reproached him for having 
refused the services of some Indian guides, who volun- 
teered to perform this duty. This ofiicer, ever foremost, 
wherever danger was to be faced, was placed in a subal- 
tern's position in this campaign, and the Virginia provin- 
cials were obliged to hold subordinate offices to those in 
the regular army. This may have been the true cause 
of this disastrous defeat, but whatever it may be, the 
deeds of the American soldiers were conspicuous through- 
out this first contest between the troops of England and 
France, in America. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 123 



CHAFTEK XL 

In the year 1756, war was formally declared between 
these two great powers of Europe. England having 
formed an alliance with her old ally, Prussia, and France 
with Austria, Russia and Sweden. The seven years' 
war was carried on in Europe, as in America, with great 
acerbity of feeling on both sides. France attacked and 
conquered Flanover, but her successes were of short du- 
ration, and in the battle of Minden, and by land and by 
sea, the flag that had "braved the battle and the breeze" 
for a thousand years, was again triumphant, and floated 
victoriously over many a hard fought ground, whereon 
the soldiers of Europe were arrayed in deadly conflict 
against each other. Lord Clive was very successful in 
the East Indies; and in America, the gallant deeds of 
Wolfe and his brave companions in arms drew down the 
plaudits of the world. This period might be considered 
as the golden era in English history, and there were men 
at the head of aflfairs, who were quite equal to the emer- 
gencies of the times in which they lived. There was 
Mr. Pitt, afterward Lord Chatham, there were Sir Robert 
"Walpole, Mr. Pelham, Sir William Pulteney, and the 
Duke of New Castle, all men in whose hands the des- 
tinies of England were safe during this trying conflict. 

In 1758, the invading American army against Fort Du- 
quesne, was placed under the charge of General Forbes, 
who arrived within one day's march of the fort, on the 
24th of November of that year. On the fourteenth of Sep- 
tember, Major Grant, who had been detached in advance 
from Loyal-hanna with eight hundred men, was sur- 
rounded by the enemy on the hill, which has since borne 
his name, and lost above three hundred men killed or 



124 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

taken prisoners ; and he himself shared the latter fate.* 
General Forbes, however, undismayed by this disaster, 
pressed forward, and having on the 24:th November, 1758, 
arrived within one day's march of Fort Duquesne, the 
French having set fire to the fort, abandoned it and de- 
scended by the Ohio, to their post on the Mississippi. 
On the next day General Forbes took possession of the 
abandoned fort, having hastily repaired the fortifications 
and garrisoned them with fom' hundred and fifty men, 
principally provincials from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 
Yirginia, under Col. Mercer. The General marched the 
rest of the troops to Lancaster, Reading, and Philadel- 
phia. From that time, the fort at the forks of the Ohio, 
was called Fort Pitt.f 

Washington was not with Forbes at the Falls of Fort 
Duquesne. He had been detached by the general to 
proceed w^ith the advance in opening the road from 
Raystown to Loyal-hanna, and he advanced by slow 
marches through Chestnut Ridge, wdiich laid between 
Laurel Hill and the river, and arrived at Fort Duquesne 
some time after it had been abandoned by the French. 
Loyal-hanna was the name of a small creek which en- 
tered the Connemaugh or Kiskiminetas river, lying to the 
east of Pittsburgh. It is situated not very far from the 
celebrated Braddock's Field, as marked on the maps of 
that period. The gallant defense of Lewis and Bullit, at 
the head of the Yirginia Guards, who engaged in a fierce 
combat with tlie Indians, drew down the commendations 
of Forbes on Colonel Washington, who had trained and 

* American Pioneer, Vol. I, p. 303. A Brief Sketch of the History of 
Pittsburgh. 

t In the July number of the American Pioneer, published in Cincin- 
nati, in 1842, Vol. I, p. 234, there is a wood engraving of Fort Duquesne, 
afterward Fort Pitt. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 125 

disciplined these gallant officers of the American army. 
The details of this defense, and Washington's successful 
march through Chestnut Ridge, must be passed over with- 
out further notice ; but it may be said that the high 
military qualifications displayed by the latter during this 
eventful campaign, were such as to entitle him to the 
highest honors in the service of his country. 

While the French are retreating toward the Mississippi, 
where, in the course of our historical narrative, we shall 
soon follow them, we may as well take a glance at the 
state of affairs in other parts of America. Boscawen had 
again reduced Louisburg, and the brave and intrepid 
Montcalm had fallen before British bayonets on the 
heights of Quebec. 

In the preceding pages we have assigned what were, 
in our opinion, the causes of the overthrow of French 
authority in America ; for France never recovered from 
the complete triumph of the English on the memorable 
battle-fields of this Continent. With the last expiring 
throe of the brave Montcalm, whose heart bled on the 
hills of Cape Diamond for God and his country, there 
was the final termination of the best hopes of France's 
illustrious statesmen for the perpetuation of their domina- 
tion in the West. Their vast and comprehensive schemes 
of Colonial policy, to erect a chain of forts which was to 
extend from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, fell 
to the ground in the same fall which crushed some of her 
noblest and most valiant spirits. Half a century had 
elapsed since the death of Montcalm before France ceased 
to be represented in the West and South-West, but she 
never recovered from the blow which she received on that 
glorious field of battle, and it is questionable, had she 
retained her sovereignty on the St. Lawrence, whether 
she would have been inclined to release it on the shores 



126 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

of the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. By the arts 
of war and diplomacy she lost every foothold she had 
once enjoyed in the Western World, and, as she receded, 
the footprints of American pioneers were observable in 
the forest, carrying with them among countless tribes 
the blessings of civilization and good government. 

In the order of events, we have now to direct our atten- 
tion to what was occurring on the banks of the Missis- 
sippi. Hither the French resorted after their discomfiture 
at Fort Duquesne. Along the shores of Lake Superior 
and Michigan there had been settlements for a consider- 
able period. Having before traced the footsteps of these 
Colonists up to the passing of the treaty of Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, in 1749, we may mention that, in the following 
year (1750), Sieur Augustin de Langlade became the 
principal proprietor of the post at Green Bay (Wiscon- 
sin), and his descendants are there at the present day.* 
He was a man of education and character ; and the pure 
idiom of his native tongue, and the polished manners 
brought hither from the French court, have been trans- 
mitted uncorrupted to the generations which have suc- 
ceeded him. His son, Charles de Langlade, a native of 
the country, bore a conspicuous part in the French war ; 
and we find him acting in the capacity of lieutenant, 
afterward of captain, under the orders of the Marquis de 
Yaudreuil, at Mackinac, St. Joseph, and at Duquesne. 
He also was a man of great energy, active and persever- 
ing in enterprises, and possessed in a high degree the 
confidence of the king and government. In the year 
1760 he was commissioned by Louis the Fifteenth, and 



* Address delivered before the State Historical Society of "Wisconsin, 
at Madison, January 21st, 1B51, by M. L. Martin, Esquire. Published 
at Green Bay, by Robinson & Brother, Printers, 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 127 

was appointed the second in command at Michilimacki- 
nac, at which place he still remained on the 4:th June, 
1763, when the Indians surprised and massacred the 
troops stationed at that post.* The distinction thus con- 
ferred upon the younger Langdale is evidence of his 
gentle birth ; for not until the innovations upon ancient 
customs, introduced by Napoleon, were officers taken, 
without regard to lineage, from the common people. In 
1760 the Marquis de Yaudreuil surrendered Montreal to 
a superior force, under General Amherst, and the Eng- 
lish had thus become masters of Canada. Major Eth- 
rington soon afterward took possession of Fort Mackinac 
and its dependencies; and in April, 1763, we find him 
giving authority to the Messrs. Langlade to take up 
their permanent residence at Green Bay. In 1782 Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Sinclair repeats the permission in favor 
of the widow Langlade, senior ; and thus the infant set- 
tlement of Wisconsin, which had been commenced and 
continued under French auspices, was sanctioned and 
encouraged under the more vigorous and equally arbitrary 
rule of the British crown. 

There were other settlements at an early period in that 
young and flourishing State. Prairie du Chien dates its 
rise from the middle of the eighteenth century ; and the 
other settlements mentioned in the preceding pages in- 
creased in population and wealth, 

Minnesota also, that young and flourishing Territory, can 
refer to this period when the adventurous hunter wandered 
over its fertile fields in the labors of the chase, or other 
pursuits. The gallant Le Seur, a brave, enterprising, 
and truthful spirit, explored in the year 1700 the sky-col- 
ored water of the St. Peter's to its blue-earth tributaiy, 

* Henry's Narrative. 



128 HISTORY OF THE YALLEY 

and in the vicinity of his log fort, L'Huillier, on the 
banks of the Mahnl^aJito^ first broke the virgin soil of 
Minnesota with the spade and pickax, in delving for cop- 
per ore, tons of which, or a green earth supposed to be 
the ore of that metal, he conveyed to France. He it was 
also, who appears to have been the first white man or 
trader who supplied the Sioux and loways with fire-arms 
and other products of civilized labor; and to his truthful 
and generally accurate journal are we indebted for the 
best statistics of the early history of the Dahcota race, 
which then, fully a century and a half ago, as now, 
occupied the greater portion of that territory. 

Captain Jonathan Carver * also claimed a settlement 
in Minnesota, under a pretended gift from the Indians, 
and still later and within the present century, Cass and 
Schoolcraft, Nicolet and Fremont, Long and Keating, 
have visited and explored that country, and are justly 
regarded as among the earliest pioneers in promoting its 
settlement. 

Before we proceed with the task of tracing the footsteps 
of the early Colonists on the shores of the Mississippi, it 
will be necessary, for the clear elucidation of the subject, 
to become acquainted with the articles of the treaty of 
Fontainebleau (ratified at Paris, the following year), 
1763. 

By this treaty, which was effected on the 16th of Feb- 
ruary of that year, England, beside being the undisputed 
possessor of the Colonies on the Atlantic, acquired the 
Canadas and Louisiana, lying east of the Mississippi, 
except the town of New Orleans and its territory. 



* Carver's travels, published at the end of the last century. He set out 
from Boston in June, 1766, and traveled through Wisconsin and Minne- 
sota. 



OP THE MISSISSIPPI. 129 

This latter portion of country, claimed by the State of 
Virginia as her territory was, after the American Revo- 
lution, ceded by her to the United States, under the name 
of the North -Western Territory. 

In consideration of the restoration of Havana and the 
greater part of the Island of Cuba, which had been con- 
quered by the British, England by the same treaty ac- 
quired the Floridas from Spain. 

By a secret treaty of the same date, the country lying 
west of the Mississippi, and which was then designated 
by the general appellation of Louisiana, was ceded by 
France to Spain.* 

It will be seen, hereafter, that this treaty, vague and 
ambiguous in its terms, gave rise to constant collisions 
between the subjects of the European governments, and 
was the source of almost endless discussions between the 
authorities of our own government and Spain ; for, by the 
treaty of 17S3, Great Britain ceded East Florida and 
guaranteed West Florida to the crown of Spain. In the 
phraseology of diplomatists, nothing could have been left 
more uncertain than the limits assigned by the treaty of 
1762. The right of navigating the Mississippi was for a 
long time a disputed point between England and Spain, 
and the space of twelve years was consumed in negotiations 
upon that and other subjects of boundary. It appears 
strange, that in the furthest recesses of the forest, where 
the settlements originated out of that spirit of enterprise 
and industry which animated the bosoms of the early 
pioneers, that their interests should have been so seriously 

* The terms of this secret treaty have never been made known. On the 
third day of the preceding November, France ceded to Spain all her ter- 
ritories on the "West side of that river, including the Island and town of 
New Orleans, which cession was accepted by the latter power on the 13th 
of the same month. 



130 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

affected by the wily intrigues of skillful diplomatists ; but 
so it was; and we have seen, that even in the case of 
Langlade, the English government had to grant permis- 
sion to the subject of a foreign government to take up his 
abode on the shores of Lake Superior. The right of 
occupation, acquired after long years of toil and hardship, 
was by them considered subordinate to that which had 
been gained in war and on the battle-field. Have we not 
reason to be thankful for the enlightened spirit and policy 
of our own free institutions, which guaranteed to the 
stranger as well as to the native, the protection of our laws 
and government ? Yet such was the policy pursued by 
European governments in many periods of their political 
existence, that aliens were not allowed to abide in the 
country without the special permission of the crown. 

Such, however, does not appear to have been the case, 
under the cession of Louisiana to Spain. It will be re- 
membered that this secret treaty was not the result of any 
warlike operations between the two governments, and 
thus the Catholic inhabitants of Louisiana seemed to be 
the objects of the especial care and solicitude of the 
French monarch. 

In a letter signed by the French king, dated April 21st, 
1764, addressed to M. D'Abbadie, Director-General and 
Commandant of Louisiana, he informed him of the treaty 
of cession, and directed him to give up to the ofiicers of 
Spain the country and Colony of Louisiana, together with 
the city of New Orleans, and all the military posts. He 
expressed a desire for the prosperity and peace of the 
inhabitants of the Colony, and his confidence in the affec- 
tion and friendship of the king of Spain. He at the 
same time declared his expectation that the ecclesiastics 
and religious bodies who had the care of the parishes and 
missions would continue to exercise their functions ; that 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 131 

the Superior Council and ordinary judges would continue 
to administer justice according to the laws, forms, and 
usages of the Colony ; that the inhabitants would be 
maintained and preserved in their estates, which had 
been granted to them by the governors and directors of 
the Colony; and, that finally, all these grants, though 
not confirmed by the French authorities, would be con- 
firmed by his Catholic Majesty. 

Although this letter was dated in April 1764, it was 
not until the year 1768, that Spain exercised any perma- 
nent jurisdiction over the territory thus acquired by her. 

In the year 1766 Don Ulloa arrived with a detachment 
of Spanish troops, and demanded possession of M. 
Aubry, who succeeded D'Abbadie, who was deceased. 
Tliis functionary, aided by the people, opposed the de- 
signs of Spain. They complained, that a transfer with- 
out their consent was unjust, and in a moment of irrita- 
tion resorted to their arms, and obliged the Spaniards to 
measure back their steps to the Havana.* 



CHAPTER XII. 

Things remained in this situation till the 17th of Aug., 
1769, when O Keilly arrived and took peaceable posses- 
sion of the Colony. He immediately selected twelve of 
the most distinguished leaders of the opposition, as the 
victims of resentment. Six of them were devoted to the 
halter to gratify the malice of arbitrary power, and to 
strike terror into the malcontents. The other six deemed 
less guilty, and surely they were much less fortunate, 
w&vQ doomed to the dungeons of Cuba. This scene of 

* Stoddard's Historical Sketches. 



132 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

blood and outrage made a deep impression of horror 
on the minds of the people and will never be for- 
gotten. 

In 1770, the Spanish authorities were established in 
Upper Louisiana, where some small settlements were 
made four years before, under the direction of their 
French Predecessors. 

One of these settlements, now the flourishing city of 
St. Louis, deserves more than a passing notice. Situated 
near the confluence of three of the principal rivers of the 
West, with a tract of country unparalleled in mineral and 
agricultural resources, it bids fair to outrun all its com- 
petitors west of the mountains, in its march onward to 
wealth and affluence. Whenever the great channels of 
trade are thrown open, by means of the internal improve- 
ments, now contemplated, tliere will be no location equal 
to St. Louis, as a mart for the commerce of the Eastern 
and Western Hemisphere. All will here be concen- 
trated, as the focus, from whence will diverge new channels 
of trade, which will be daily opening up in every part 
of the great west. 

The History, therefore, of the rise and progress of that 
city, associated as it is, with the different changes of 
government at the period of which we are speaking, can- 
not be devoid of interest, and it has been so well stated 
in the various addresses, that were delivered at a celebra- 
tion of the anniversary of the founding of St. Louis, that 
it is appropriate to insert it here. 

Fort de Chartres, one of the chain of military posts, 
established by France upon the line of her frontier, was 
surrendered to the English as early as the year 1765, 
some two years after the treaty, and some seventeen 
months after the foundation of St Louis. 

In the meantime, and until 1768, the Province of Loui- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 133 

siana, which really belonged to Spain, remained under 
French laws and French jurisdiction. 

Fort de Chartres, established in the American bottom, 
a short distance above Kaskaskia was garrisoned by 
French troops, and had become to the Province of Upper 
Louisiana a nucleus around which, under the protection 
of the French Government, numerous villages and settle- 
ments on both sides of the Mississippi, had sprung into 
existence. 

St. Ange de Belle Rive was the French commander at 
Fort de Chartres and surrendered it to Captain Stirling, 
who had been appointed to take possession of it. 

This transfer of possession from the French to the 
English control was not pleasant to a race of men whose 
tastes, habits, religion, and feelings were so much at war 
with those of their new masters ; and it is not a matter 
of surprise, that the descendants of those who battled 
against the British Crown, in many a well-fought field, 
should leave their altars and firesides, and seek as they 
did, upon the western side of the river, an abiding-place, 
where naught should recall to their minds the idea of 
subjection to a national, if not a natural foe. 

It was during this state of the political and social 
aspect of the country, and while France was de facto 
governing the Province of Louisiana, that the first move- 
ment was made, which resulted in the establishment of 
St. Louis. 

In 1762, M. D'Abbadie was Director-General, and Civil 
and Military Commander of the Province of Louisiana, 
under the French Government. Invested with powers of 
almost a vice-regal character, he had control in Louisiana 
of all that pertained to governmental functions. The 
upper portion of Louisiana was but little known, its vast 
resources were unexplored ; but to enterprising men, there 



134 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

was enough known to warrant an undertaking, such as 
the founder of St. Louis originated. 

The lead trade, which was mostly concentrated at 
Sainte Genevieve, and the commerce in oils, and peltries, 
which was in a measure monopolized by the neighboring 
small settlements and villages, still left abundant room 
for the development of the resources and capabilities of 
the upper Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and the 
countries bordering upon them. 

The attempt to control the resources of a region so 
vast and unexplored certainly required a sagacity of 
mind, and an enduring firmness of purpose, which im- 
pelled a Columbus to the discovery of a new Continent, 
and to have prompted such men as Cartier, La Salle, and 
Hennepin, to the dangerous tasks, which they undertook, 
and carried out with such daring. 

In Pierre Ligueste Laclede was found a combination 
of the qualities which were required for such an under- 
taking. It was in view of the productive capacities and 
the resources of Occidental Louisiana, or rather of the 
Illinois, as this region was then called, that Laclede ob- 
tained from M.D'Abbadie,in behalf of himself and others, 
the exclusive privilege and the necessary powers to trade 
with the Indians of the Missouri, and those west of the 
Mississippi above the Missouri, as far north as the river 
St. Peters. 

The charter may have been granted by M. D'Abbadie 
more from motives of governmental policy than from 
motives of personal kindness and friendship. The exten- 
sion of settlements in Upper Louisiana would ensure an 
enlargement of French commerce and power, and would 
strengthen a claim to the exclusive right of navigating 
the Mississippi, which was even then entertained, and 
which, at a subsequent period, became a subject of such 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 135 

protracted and unpleasant negotiation between the Amer- 
ican States and Spain. 

The extent of the powers granted by this charter can 
not now perhaps be ascertained with precision, as no 
record, or even tradition of the same exists beyond what 
has already been said. But in consequence of the powers 
with which he w^as invested, Laclede formed an expedi- 
tion, at the head of which he was placed, and started 
from New Orleans on the third day of August, 1763, for 
the purpose of carrying into effect the powers which had 
been granted to him. 

On the third day of November, of the same year, three 
months after his departure from New Orleans, he reached 
Ste. Genevieve, then a town of some note, but finding 
no place suitable for the storage of his goods, and being 
still too far from the Missouri river, a proximity to which 
was an object of primary importance to him, he pro- 
ceeded on to Fort de Chartres. This place was still in 
the possession of the French troops, — the knowledge of the 
transfer to England being as yet unknown. 

From thence Laclede, in pursuance of the objects which 
he had in view", proceeded toward the Missouri river in 
search of a suitable location, and, having fixed upon the 
site w^here St. Louis now stands, he returned to the fort. 

In the beginning of February, 1761:, Laclede left Fort 
de Chartres for his point of destination, taking with him 
the men whom he had brought from New Orleans, a few 
from Ste. Genevieve, and some from the fort and its 
neighborhood. On his route, passing through the town 
of Cahokia, — then called "Notre Dame de Kahokias," — • 
he engaged several families to go with him to his pro- 
posed establishment. 

On the 15th February, 1764, Laclede and his party 
landed at the spot now occupied by St. Louis, and pro- 



136 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

ceeded to cut down trees and draw the lines of a town, 
which he named St. Louis, in honor of Louis the Fif- 
teenth, of France; a town which subsequently became 
the capital of Upper Louisiana, and which is now the 
commercial capital of Missouri. 

In the year 1Y65 the Fort de Chartres was abandoned 
by the French troops, ostensibly because of the unhealthi- 
ness of its position, but really because of its surrender to 
Capt. Stirling, under the provisions of the treaty of 1763. 

M. St. Ange de Belle Rive, the French commander of 
that fort, upon the surrender, removed with his officers 
and troops to St. Louis, on the 17th July, 1765 ; and, 
from that time henceforth, the new establishment was 
considered as the capital of Upper Louisiana. 

Immediately upon his arrival, St. Ange assumed the 
reins of government. Whence he derived his authority 
is unknown ; for M. D'Abbadie about that time had died, 
and his functions were exercised by M. Aubry, at Kew 
Orleans. 

The inhabitants of St. Louis submitted to his authority 
without murmur, for they had always been accustomed 
to the mild and liberal policy of the French power ; and 
even then, perhaps, the secret of their transfer to Spain 
had been studiously concealed from them. 

In the meantime, however, the fact of the cession of 
Louisiana (not the terms of the cession) had been made 
known at l!^ew Orleans. In 1766, while great dissatis- 
faction then prevailed, the captain-general, Don Antonio 
D'Ulloa, with Spanish troops, arrived there, and de- 
manded possession in the name of Spain. This was 
refused ; and the people of New Orleans, indignant at a 
proceeding which had transferred them from hand to 
hand, like merchandise, drove back D'Ulloa from their 
shores. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 137 

In this state of quasi revolt the population of Lower 
Louisiana remained clinging to their loved government 
of France until the arrival of Count O'Eeilly, in 1769. 
The inhabitants of Upper Louisiana, fewer in numbers, 
and incapable of such resistance as had been manifested 
by their southern brethren, were compelled to submit to 
Spanish authority. Accordingly we find that, on the 
11th August, 1768, M. Eious, a Spanish officer, with 
Spanish troops, — perhaps the very same that had been 
driven from New Orleans, — arrived at St. Louis, and 
took possession of Upper Louisiana in the name of his 
Catholic Majesty. 

It would seem that the authority of Rious did not ex- 
tend beyond the mere act of taking possession, for there 
is no record extant of the exercise of any civil authority 
on his part ; on the contrary, we find from the archives 
that St. Ange continued until the beginning of 1770 to 
perform official functions. 

Contenting himself with the performance of a mere 
possessory act, Rious, with his troops, on the 17th July, 
1769, evacuated Upper Louisiana, and returned to New 
Orleans, doubtless to aid O'Reilly in the occupation of 
the lower portion of the Province. 

The transfer from France to Spain, under the treaty of 
cession having been thus completely effected, O'Reilly 
immediately established laws for the regulation of the 
whole Province ; and in his capacity of Governor and 
Intendant-General, he deputed Don Pedro Piernas to be 
Lieutenant-Governor and Civil and Military Commandant 
of Upper Louisiana. 

On the 29th of November, 1770, Piernas arrived at 
St. Louis; but it does not appear from any record or 
other evidence, that he entered into the exercise of his 
functions till the month of February following. 
12 



138 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

The inhabitants were soon reconciled to the change of 
dominion, ibr Piernas tempered all his official acts with 
a spirit of mildness, which characterized the course of 
nearly all his successors. Such measures were indeed 
imperatively required toward men who had come with ill- 
humor under the Spanish power, and who would not 
otherwise have hesitated to follow the example before set 
by their brethren at New Orleans. 

The policy thus pursued, brought about the strongest 
attachment to Spain. 

Settlements were formed along the Missouri and Mis- 
sissippi rivers ; and as early as 1767, Vide PocJie^ after- 
ward called Carondelet, in honor of the Baron de Caron- 
delet, was founded by Delor de Tregette. In 1776, 
Florissant^ afterward called St. Ferdinand, in honor of 
the king of Spain, was founded by Beaurosier Dunegant ; 
and in 1769, '^ Les petites cotes^^ now St, Charles, was 
established by Blanchette Chasseur ; and numerous other 
small settlements sprang up on the borders of the two 
rivers above named, and in the interior of the country. 

Piernas was succeeded in his office of Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor by Don Francisco Cruzat, in 1775, and he in his 
turn was supplanted by Don Fernando de Leyba, in the 
year 1778. 

Barbe Marbols, in his history of Louisiana, published 
in Paris, in 1829,* gives rather a different version of the 
proceedings of the Spanish authorities before New Or- 
leans, but the foregoing account contains the leading 
events bearing on the change of government in Upper 
Louisiana. 



* Barbe Marbois published two works on the history of the Spanish 
possessions in America, one in 1790, and the other in 1829 ; but this may 
have been later than its actual publication. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 139 

The history of the secret treaty between France and 
Spain has never been made known, but a view of the 
antecedent circumstances may throw some light on the 
subject. Ever since 1758, France had sustained nothing 
but reverses ; her army and navy were beaten in almost 
every part of the world. Her treasury being empty, and 
all negotiations with England having failed, the Duke de 
Choiseul, who had just been named Minister of War, 
but who really exercised the powers of Prime Minister 
in France, drew Spain into the war by the treaty of 1761, 
which was known under the name of the "Family Com- 
pact." E^otw^ithstanding this alliance, the combined 
armies sustained nothing but defeat. Spain lost Cuba, 
the Manillas, twelve vessels of the line, and an almost 
incredible amount of money and property, seized on the 
ocean by frigates and privateers. As for France, she 
had lost almost all her Colonies, and had gained nothing 
in Europe. Thanks to the mediation of Sardinia and 
the pacific disposition of Lord Bute, who had succeeded 
Mr. Pitt in the administration of the government, and 
perhaps to the threatening attitude of France and Spain 
against Portugal, England's old ally, the peace of Fon- 
tainebleau was concluded. 

It was just, that France, that had entrained Spain into 
the expense of an alliance with her, should indemnify 
her by the cession of Louisiana. This grant w^as, it is 
true, repulsive to the feelings of the people of that Col- 
ony, so much so that Barbe Marbois says, that D'Abba- 
die, the French governor, died with grief, when he was 
requested by Louis Fifteenth to notify the surrender to 
the people. At the outset of the Spanish government in 
Louisiana they had more reason to dread their change of 
allegiance; for O'Peilly, the Spanish governor, commit- 
ted an act of perfidy and treachery unparalleled in the 



140 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

annals of colonial government. He convoked twelve 
deputies of the people to establish a code of laws. These 
delegates assembled at his own house, and waited for him 
to commence their deliberations. In a moment the doors 
were thrown open, and O'Reilly appeared at the head of 
a troop of soldiers, who seized hold of the deputies, load- 
ed them with chains, and threw them into dungeons. 
As is before stated, six of them were shot by the orders 
of this cruel and sanguinary governor, and the others 
were immured within the walls of a Cuban prison. The 
French Attorney-General, named Lafreniere, was one of 
these victims; he encouraged his fellow-countrymen to 
die with firmness, and when the soldiers presented their 
arms at him, requested his friend Noyau to send his scarf 
to his wife to be given to his son, when he should attain 
the age of twenty years. This tragical event occurred at 
the commencement of the Spanish government in the 
West : it was well for Spain that the mildness and concili- 
ation which were afterward manifested by her officers 
wiped away the memory of this atrocious transaction, 
and caused the old French Colonists of America to become 
reconciled to the change of government. 

France, says Sismondi,* never concluded a more humil- 
iating peace than that which was effected at Paris to 
terminate the " seven years' war." The value of the terri- 
tories which she ceded, was then comparatively nothing 
to what it is at the present day. Notwithstanding her 
disasters, the French people lost nothing of their usual 
gayety and versatility of humor, and one of their writers, 
Bachaumont^ says, their defeat afforded subjects for 
poets, and amusements for theaters. If she lost in mili- 
tary warfare, she gained in literary glory — it was the age 

* Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, 18 vol. 8vo. Paris, 1821, 1834. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 141 

of Mirabean, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, and a host 
of efiulgent luminaries that lighted up her literary hem- 
isphere. 

We have dwelt at length on the events which were 
transpiring on the shores of the Mississippi ; for it falls 
within the province of the historian, to detail those par- 
ticularly which had an important bearing on the change 
of policy and government in the West. Matters of mere 
local or sectional interest, and the early advances of our 
hardy pioneers in the wilderness (although of surpassing 
interest), can only be casually glanced at, leaving to other 
writers the task of doing full justice to that noble class 
of men, who first ventured their lives and fortunes amono: 
the savages and wild beasts of the forests, engaged in 
pushing forward that civilization, the fruits of which we 
now see and enjoy. 

After the peace, the Indian tribes assembled and at- 
tacked the forts from Lake Michigan to the Ohio. The 
English had but a weak foothold in the country, but 
under the admirable plan of action pursued by Colonel 
Bouquet and the troops under his command, he relieved 
the Forts Detroit, Niagara, and Fort Pitt, and concluded 
a treaty w^ith these hostile Indian tribes. 

Here it will be necessary to give an account of the cele- 
brated confederation of the Indian tribes throughout the 
whole western portion of this Continent. 

The French had hardly lost their sovereignty in Amer- 
ica, when these barbarous nations felt the force of the 
observation, which they had repeatedly heard from them, 
that they would lose their political influence and inde- 
pendence, the moment one European nation only, had 
exclusive dominion in the New World. As long as the 
French remained in the country under the rule of their 
leaders, they lost no opportunity to cultivate the most 



142 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

friendly relations with the Indian tribes ; but the moment 
they lost their sovereignty, they availed themselves of the 
services of their former Indian allies, to satisfy that re- 
vengeful spirit which they manifested against their 
conquerors. To this cause is to be attributed the sudden 
rising of the Indian nations from the shores of Lake 
Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. Pontiac, a name which 
will be forever memorable in the annals of Indian war- 
fare, and which was dreaded as much by hostile Indian 
tribes, as by Europeans, formed an alliance between the 
Hurons, the Ottawas, the Chippewas, and the Pota- 
watomies to the North, and the Shawnees, the Sakies, and 
the Cherokees and other Indian tribes to the South, 
forming perhaps the most powerful combination which 
had ever been formed to extirpate the whites and drive 
them out of the country. Noble, bold, and experienced 
in the peculiar mode of warfare adopted by his country- 
men, this Ottawa chief performed the most brilliant 
exploits, and gained the most decisive victories. He 
carried Fort Michilimackinac by surprise, and massacred 
the garrison ; he marched against Pittsburgh and Detroit, 
where he proposed to establish his headquarters, and to 
form a nucleus for a powerful Indian confederation. 

Eight English forts fell into the hands of this barba- 
rian, who ravaged the frontiers of Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, and destroyed a detachment of troops in the 
neighborhood of Niagara. But the project which he 
formed was too vast for the forces under his command to 
accomplish. After having sustained several defeats, he 
was obliged to make peace with those troops whose hostil- 
ity he had provoked. This Indian chief had a bitter and 
hostile feeling against England in particular, and he lost 
no opportunity to vent it. In a council which was about 
being held among the Hurons, Pontiac was inveighing in 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 143 

the most declamatory terms against that power, when it 
is said he was assassinated by an Indian who had been 
bribed by the Government to do the deed. 

When the hostilities began between the Colonies and 
the mother comitry, Shegenaba, Pontiac's son, appeared 
before the Virginia deputies, and made a speech which 
equaled, if it did not surpass, Logan's celebrated address, 
mentioned by Jefierson. In his youth, he had been the 
means of saving from destruction, a young Virginian of 
the name of Field, who had wandered in the woods, and 
whom he protected and gave shelter in his own rude 
cabin. Hamilton, the Governor of Detroit, had attempted 
to dissuade him from going within the American borders ; 
he tried to excite his apprehension that he would be mur- 
dered by the Virginians, but Shegenaba, now elevated 
to the rank of his father, persisted in his determination 
of visiting his neighbors. He was kindly received, and 
presented with a gun and other marks of their attention. 
From the reply which he made before the Virginia 
council, there is the best proof of the perfidy of Hamilton 
and his desire to sow the seeds of discord between the 
Indians and the Americans. 

He said, — '" Fathers, after the insinuations of the com- 
mandant of Detroit, I accepted your invitation with 
distrust, and measured my route with trembling feet 
toward this ' Council of Fire.' * Your reception proves 
his falsehood, and that my fears were groundless. Truth 
and him have been a long time enemies. My father, 
and many of my chiefs, have lately tasted the bitterness 
of death. The memory of this misfortune almost de- 
stroys my quality of man, in filling my eyes with tears. 

* An enigmatic expression to show that he had come to light the 
calumet of peace. 



144: HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

Your sensible compassion has relieved mj heart of this 
heavy burden, and the remembrance will be transmitted to 
my remotest posterity. Fathers : I rejoice at what I have 
just now heard, and I assure you that I shall faithfully 
relate it to my nation. K, for the future, you wish to 
speak with me, I shall retm-n with pleasure ; and I thank 
you for your present invitation. The particular friend- 
ship which you express toward me, and the gun w^hich 
you have given me, for the care I took of your young 
brother, Field, exact my most heartfelt gratitude. I feel 
that I did nothing but my duty. He who simply does 
his duty merits no praise. If any one of your nation 
should visit mine, either from curiosity or on business, 
or should be involuntarily thrust among us by the strong 
hand of the conqueror, he will meet with the same recep- 
tion which your brother received. You have assured me 
that, if my nation should visit yours, they will be wel- 
come. My fears have ceased. I have now no longer any 
doubts. I will recommend our young men to visit yours, 
and to make their acquaintance. Fathers: What has 
passed this day is too profoundly engraved on my heart 
for time ever to efface it. I predict that the sun's rays 
of this day of peace will warm the children of our chil- 
dren, and will protect them against the tempests of mis- 
fortune. As a guaranty of what I say, I present you my 
right hand: this hand which has never been given with- 
out the heart consented, which has never shed human 
blood in peace, nor spared an enemy in w^ar; and I 
assure you of my friendship with a tongue which has 
never jested with truth since I have been of that age to 
know that falsehood is a crime." * 



* Recherches Historiques, par un Citoyen de Virginie Colle. 4 vols. 
1788. Vol. IV, p. 156. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 145 

No one can read these Indian addresses without feelins: 
a melancholy interest in the fate of those denizens of the 
forest, who, although they were our enemies, were as 
noble, brave, and sincere in their friendship, as most 
people. Their angry feelings were worked upon during 
the Revolutionary war by that wily and insidious policy 
of the British government, which disregarded the means 
when they had an end in view, no matter how repugnant 
they might have been to the code of morals or the dic- 
tates of reason. The Indians were powerful auxiliaries 
on the side of that cruel and relentless foe ; and the 
scouts, well inured to the hardships of traveling in the 
forest, were the best aids of an invading army. "Ene- 
mies in war, in peace friends," was the motto which the 
Indian warrior Shegenaba, enunciated before the Virginia 
Council ; and while treachery, and the vilest arts of de- 
ceptive warfare marked them as enemies, the most benev- 
olent feelings actuated them as friends. 

From the peace of 1763 to Clark's expedition, our small, 
but noble band of warriors and patriots, was engaged in 
an attempt to drive them beyond the English forts on the 
Ohio and the Monongahela. Bouquet's expedition has 
been before mentioned ; and in the midst of all this pre- 
datory warfare along our Western frontier, the treaty of 
Fort Stanwix was concluded on the 5th November, 1768, 
by which the title of the Indian tribes to the lands south 
of the Ohio river and east of the Cherokee or Tennessee 
river was secured to the British government. 

13 



146 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Some time before this period George Croghan visited 
the West, and was taken prisoner by the Indians some- 
where near the mouth of the Wabash. He left Fort 
Pitt on the 15th May, 1765, with two batteanx, and 
encamped at Chartres Island, in the Ohio, three miles 
below Fort Pitt. As the account w^hich he gives is the 
best description of the country along the Ohio at that 
period, an abstract is here furnished. Being joined by 
the deputies of the Senecas, Shawnees, and Delawares, 
they set off at seven o'clock in the morning, and at ten 
o'clock arrived at Logstown, — an old settlement of the 
Shawnees, about seventeen miles from Fort Pitt, — where 
they put ashore, and viewed the remains of that village, 
which was situated on a high bank on the south side of 
the Ohio river, a fine fertile country being around it. At 
eleven o'clock they re-embarked, and proceeded down 
the Ohio to the mouth of Big Beaver creek, about ten 
miles below Logstown. About a mile below the mouth 
of Big Beaver creek, they passed an old settlement of 
the Delawares, where the French, in 1756, built a town 
for that nation ; after which they passed several spacious 
bottoms on each side of the river, and came to Little 
Beaver creek about fifteen miles below Big Beaver creek. 
A number of small rivulets fall into the river on each 
side. From thence they sailed to Yellow creek, being 
fifteen miles farther down. They encamped on the river 
bank, and found a great part of the trees in the bottom 
covered with grape vines. On the seventeenth they ar- 
rived at a place called the Two Creeks, about fifteen 
miles from YeUow creek, where the Senecas had a village 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 147 

on a high bank on the north side of the river. Having 
disembarked, the chief offered Croghan his services to go 
with him to the Illinois, which he could not refuse for 
fear of offending him, although he had a sufficient num- 
ber of deputies with him already. From thence they 
proceeded down the river till they came to Buffalo creek, 
being about ten miles below the Seneca village ; and 
from Buffalo creek they proceeded down the river to 
Fatmeat creek, about thirty miles. On the eighteenth, 
having gone fifty miles, they entered " Long Reach,"* 
where the river has a straight course for twenty miles. 
They descended the Ohio, marking the different features 
of the country on the journey, until they arrived at the 
mouth of the Wabash, where they found a breastwork 
erected, supposed to be done by the Indians. They ob- 
serve that the mouth of the river is about two hundred 
yards wide, and in its course runs through one of the 
finest countries in the world, the lands being exceed- 
ingly rich and well-watered, and where hemp might be 
raised in immense quantities. On the eighth, while at 
an old Shawnee village, they were attacked by a party 
of Indians, consisting of eighty warriors, who killed two 
men and three Indians of the party, wounding Colonel 
Croghan and all the rest of the party, excepting two 
white men and one Indian ; made them all prisoners, and 
plundered them of everything they had. A deputy of the 
Shawnees, who was shot through the thigh, having con- 
cealed himself in the woods for a few minutes after he 
was wounded, not knowing but that they were South- 
ern Indians, who are always at war with the jN^orthern 
Indians, after discovering what nation they were, came 



* " Long Reach," on the Ohio, is marked on an old map of Virginia, 
in the possession of tlie author. It is some miles above the Little Kan- 
awha river. 



148 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

up to tliem and made a very bold speech, telling them 
that the whole Northern Indians would join in taking 
revenge for the insult and murder of their people. This 
alarmed those savages very much, who began excusing 
themselves, saying their fathers, the French, had encourag- 
ed them telling them that the Indians were coming, with 
a body of Southern Indians, to take their country from 
them, and enslave them; that it was this that induced 
them to commit the outrage. 

They found a village, of about eighty or ninety French 
families, at Yincennes, wdiose friendly disposition toward 
them they much doubted; and, having afterward pur- 
sued their journey, and visited the country of the Illinois, 
descended the Miami river on their way to Detroit. At 
this fort, and in the vicinity, they found several hundred 
French families, with whose morals and habits of living 
they were not at all pleased, and having remained there a 
short time, they set out for Niagara, where they arrived 
on the eighth of October. 

Such is the description which Croghan gives of the 
country at that period (1765), a wild, uninhabited forest, 
with here and there a few Indian villages and French 
settlements, the natives and the Europeans being alike 
the deadly enemies of the English, and fearing their 
advances on their domain. 

In this year a treaty w^as concluded in New York, 
called the Treaty of the German Flats, which ensured 
tranquillity for a short time between the Indians and the 
whites, but various acts of hostility, incidental to a bor- 
der warfare, continued to be exercised occasionally, and 
prevented anything like a systematic attempt at coloni- 
zation of this unsettled country. 

In 1767, Fort Eedstone, the site of the Town of Browns- 
ville in Pennsylvannia was the rendezvous of the few 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 149 

whites, in that section, and we read in 1T69, that Ebe- 
nezer, Silas, and Jonathan Zanes, all brothers and of a 
respectable family, visited the Ohio. 

It would be needless to mention the names of those 
few English pioneers, who first stepped beyond the 
bounds of civilized communities, to wander in the path- 
less deserts of America, in search of adventure; their 
heroism and courage, in daring to emulate the wild 
savage in his own trackless forest, are duly chronicled in 
the pages of history, and as long as Americans take 
pleasure in perusing the early annals of the country, 
they will feel a deep and an abiding interest in the relations 
of these travelers. The adventures of Boon, and of Hen- 
derson, of Lowther, and of Finley, are intimately con- 
nected with the early liistory of the States, bordering on 
the Ohio, and we should (if sufficient space were accord- 
ed within the limits of this work), be glad to partake 
with them of that romantic, but melancholy interest, 
which is attached to the narration of the personal risks 
and dangers they experienced, while exploring the hidden 
recesses of the great American forest. 

The history of this period would not be correctly 
understood, if we confined our remarks to what was oc- 
curring within the territories of the Indian tribes. A 
succession of combats betwen isolated detachments of 
Indians and the whites, would give an imperfect idea of 
the pretensions of either party ; if one party of Indians 
were routed, another would soon supply its place, and 
thus the contest might be continued for a length of 
time, without afibrding any practical results. The 
afiair at Baker's Fort, and on Yellow and Captine 
Creeks, affords proof of this assertion, for while it 
may have secured a temporary period of relaxation from 



150 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

the evils of Indian warfare, it did not affect the political 
relations existing between the contending parties. 

Who were the enemies, against whom the old English 
Colonists were contending at that period, in the wilds of 
America ? Were they the Indians or the French ? The 
latter had not forgotten the numerous defeats they had 
sustained at the hands of English soldiers ; they were not 
willing to release without a struggle the possession of an 
empire, in the defense of w^hich they had exhausted their 
treasury and shed their blood. Peace was declared in 
1763, it was duly chronicled on deeds of parchment at 
Paris and Eon tain ebleau, but war was written in letters 
of blood on the hearts of all those men, who had fought 
on the battle-fields of Pittsburgh and Quebec. Their 
last attempt on the Western frontiers of America, may be 
considered as the expiring throes of a brave and valiant 
people, bent on taking revenge for the wrongs they had 
sustained. After having fought the English with their 
own stout arms and stalwart hearts, they engaged the 
Indians to carry on a cruel and relentless system of warfare 
against their ancient foes. Through these wild denizens 
of the forest, they aimed a blow at the cause of English 
colonization, which greatly retarded the settlement of the 
western territory. 

In order to understand the subsequent movements, it 
will be necessary to refer to the position of the parties 
after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle and that of 1763. 

It has before been stated, that the Ohio Company was 
formed in 1749. This company obtained a concession of 
six hundred thousand acres of land, and comprised the 
most influential colonists in the old Provinces. It was 
not the first time that they desired to form settlements 
in the West. In the year 1716, Mr. Spottesw^ood, Cover- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 151 

nor of Yirginia, had proposed to the British Government 
to purchase a territory from the Indians, and to form an 
association for purposes of trade,* but the Cabinet of 
Versailles opposed the project, and it was abandoned.f 
In the preceding years, M. de la Galissonniere, Governor- 
General of Canada, sent M. Celeron de Bienville with 
three hundred men to expel all the English traders, whom 
they found west of the mountains, and to take possession 
of the country in a solemn manner, by planting posts and 
burying leaden plates in the earth, on wdiich were en- 
graved the arms of France, and the date of the occupa- 
tion. M. Celeron wrote also to the Governor of Penn- 
sylvania, informing him of his mission, and requesting 
him to give orders, that for the future, the inhabitants of 
that Province should not go to trade beyond the Apala- 
chian Mountains, as he had express injunctions to arrest 
them, and confiscate their property, it' they persisted in 
trading with the Indians. At the same time, M. de la 
Galissonniere was in correspondence on the same subject, 
with Messrs Shirley and Clinton, who were then respect- 
ively Governors of Boston and New York. J 

The Marquis de la Jonquiere succeeded De la Galis- 
sonniere, as Governor of Canada, and followed the same 
instructions from the French court, viz : to exclude all the 
English who would seek to establish themselves in the 
Ohio Territory. 

Notwithstanding these express commands of the French 
King, the Governors of Pennsylvania and Maryland, con- 
tinued to furnish passports to the traders, who ventured 
beyond the Appalachian Mountains. It was pretended by 
the French, that they excited the Indians against them, 
gave them arms and ammunition, and brought them over 

* Universal History, Vol. XL. f Memoire par M. de Choiseul. 

t Documents in London. 



152 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

on the side of the Colonists. Three of these traders 
were sent to France as prisoners in the year 1750, and as 
reprisals, the English seized hold of a like number, and 
brought them to the South of the Appalachian range. 

Such was the state of the Western frontier, after the 
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. It was not improved after 
the successful march of Forbes, and the abandonment of 
Fort Duquesne. 

During the interval between Braddock's defeat and, 
Forbes' and Grant's invasion, the American frontier was 
the scene of the most frightful devastations, and the 
wildest disorder. The enemy, animated by temporary 
success, had sent detached parties to lay waste the farms 
and plantations in Western Yirginia, and the inhabitants 
becoming alarmed at the visits of these daring marauders, 
abandoned their homes, and sought refuge in the Eastern 
Colonies, and along the shores of the Atlantic. Hundreds 
were massacred in cold blood, or led into captivity by 
these rutliless barbarians, and the danger of living in 
the vicinity of these savages was greatly enhanced by the 
unprotected state, in which the American frontier then 
remained. Many are the tales of noble daring and in- 
trepid demeanor, manifested by these hardy pioneers, 
who were exposed to all the horrors of an Indian war- 
fare, while cultivating their farms in the hitherto peace- 
ful valleys of Western Virginia. It needs not the bright 
coloring of romance to paint in glowing language the 
trials and vicissitudes they experienced, the stern reality 
of truth would only depict what actually befell them, 
while warring against the wild savages of the forest. 

This state of things continued during the years 1756, 
and 57, and tlie inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and Virginia, 
flew from the assaults of their persecutors, and took re- 
fuge on the other side of the Blue Mountains. In vain 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 153 

they attempted to resist the foe ; the militia was organized 
and disguised as Indian warriors, but nothing would 
answer to prevent the midnight visits of these savages. 
At one time, fears were entertained for the safety of 
Fredericktown or Winchester in Virginia, and Colonel 
Washington, who commanded the frontier, wrote in the 
most pressing terms to the Governor of Virginia, to in- 
form him of the desolation and ravages, the Indians were 
causing. " I declare solemnly (he added in one of his 
letters) that I would voluntarily ofier myself as a sacri- 
fice to our barbarous enemies, if that would contribute to 
the relief of the people." 

Even after the successful march of Forbes from Loyal- 
hanna to Pittsburgh, the same state of things continued, 
and notwithstanding the peace of 1763, the condition of 
the western frontiers engaged the serious attention of the 
Colonial governors. 

On the 18th of October, 1770, a treaty was formed 
between the English and the Cherokees, at Lochaber, in 
South Carolina, under which the Indian boundary was 
fixed "at the point where the boundary line between the 
Province of North Carolina and the Cherokee hunting- 
grounds terminates (rather ambiguous), and running tlience 
in a westerly course to a point six miles east of Long 
Island, in Holsticis river; thence in a course to the con- 
fluence of the Great Kanawha and Ohio rivers," without 
saying what course, but under this treaty, the Indians 
claimed all the territory south of the Ohio, and west of 
the Kanhawha. 

The treaties at Fort Stanwix, and Fort Lochaber, were 
afterward much relied upon in the negotiations between 
our government and the Indians for the transfer of the 
lands, but it is obvious that their terms are very indis- 
tinct. 



154 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

From 1769 to 1773, matters appeared to wear a more 
peaceable aspect in the interior. Still, the white man 
dreaded to meet an Indian foe, and every step he took, 
walked as if he were in the vicinity of some ferocious 
animal. But the wild, reckless spirit of adventure urged 
on our brave pioneers in the task they had undertaken. 
No vain fears filled their bosoms, or made them pause in 
their career; but they considered themselves as ''instru- 
ments ordained to settle the wilderness ;"* and in their 
journeys in the forest, they were impelled by a lofty sense 
of the responsibility which attended them. 

Let the reader imagine the perils and the dangers of a 
life in the forest at that period ; let him fancy that he sees 
the noble, the bold and chivalrous Boone taking his 
departure from his home upon the Yadkin, in May, 1769, 
and threading his way across the mountains in search of 
adventure. But it does not require any stretch of the 
imagination to conceive the trials and dangers he under- 
went. History, written on the bark of the trees of the 
primeval forest, as he used his jack knife to cut the llazees^ 
to mark his path, and point out the way to return, tells a 
tale which does not require the ornaments of fancy or of 
rhetoric to adorn it. In the trackless forest, far away from 
his home and family, the hardy adventurer was planning 
schemes for his own future comfort, but which, when 
accomplished, would promote the happiness of thousands 
of others who would follow in his footsteps. Boone did 
not remain in the country on his first voyage, but re- 
turned to North Carolina, after undergoing the most 
extraordinary hardships. He again took his departure 
in September, 1773, in company with some families, and 
a few others, who overtook them in Powell's Valley ; but 

* Boone's Narrative. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 155 

lie was again doomed to encounter disasters, for the Indi- 
ans attacked him, and among others, killed his eldest son. 
He retraced his steps across the mountains, but afterward 
pursued his discoveries, and finally settled down in Ken- 
tucky, where he led a long and useful life. In 1812, we 
find him petitioning the Kentucky legislature, detailing 
his grievances, and praying for relief. He concludes 
thus: ''Your memorialist w^as left once more, at about 
the age of eighty, to be a wanderer in the world." 

Congress, on the representation of the Kentucky leg- 
islature, by the act of the 10th of February, 1814, showed 
its just appreciation of merit and valuable services ren- 
dered on behalf of his country, by awarding to the noble 
old pioneer a thousand arjpens of land. Boone, it is said, 
did not enjoy this property very long, as it was wrested 
from him to satisfy the demands of some of his creditors. 
He died in the State of Missouri, surrounded by his fam- 
ily and friends, who found in him a kind parent and an 
honest man. 

To Boone's successful discoveries, followed by those of 
Bullitt and the McAfees, Kentucky owes the progress she 
made in the early periods of her history, and while suc- 
ceeding years may wipe away the memory of the services 
rendered by other adventurers, time ought never to be 
permitted to efface the remembrance of what they did to 
promote the prosperity and happiness of the people of 
Kentucky. 

The most important demonstration made by troops in 
the Western country, since Braddock's defeat, and Forbes's 
march, took place under Lord Dunmore's administration 
of the government of Virginia. In fact, it may be termed 
the third military campaign by the Colonists against the 
Indians. 

But before we detail the events of this warfare, it will 



156 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

be necessary to state what was Lord Dunmore's character, 
that we may be able to account for his remarkable con- 
duct in the war against the Indians of 1774. 

If there be two persons among England's colonial 
governors whose names ought to be handed down to the 
execration of all Americans to the remotest posterity, 
they are those of Gage of Massachusetts, and Dunmore 
of Virginia. 

Cruel in their persecution, unrelenting in their hatred 
against all those who happened to be opposed to them, 
their vengeance knew no limits, nor was allowed to re- 
main unappeased. The hired servants of a wicked and 
corrupt government, they were proper instruments for 
carrying out its arbitrary mandates and oppressive laws. 
The deadly enemies of free institutions, they were the 
fittest agents to pander to the vices of despots and tyrants. 
As for Lord Dunmore, the pages of Virginian history 
tell a tale which redounds neither to his character as a 
man, nor his capacity as a governor. The burning of 
the towns and villages in Virginia, in the midst of the 
cries and lamentations of widowed mothers and orphaned 
children, lighted a flame which exhibited Lord Dun- 
more's character in letters of fire before the gaze of the 
civilized world. His conduct, it is true, drew down the 
denunciations of the British Parliament, and there were 
men, such as the Duke of Richmond, who exclaimed in 
the house of Lords, that he was "carrying on the war in 
a manner that was revolting to even barbarous nations, 
in burning the towns without any compassion for their 
unfortunate inhabitants, who, naked and hungry, perished 
of cold and of misery ; and it is not against our enemies, 
it is against our best friends, that you permit these ex- 
cesses. Could you hear without shuddering, the burn- 
ing of our faithful town of Norfolk ; she has just been 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 157 

reduced to ashes without the provocation of any act of 
hostility. Such a barbarous execution, ought it not to 
alienate from us forever the hearts of those who might 
still preserve some affection toward us. It sullies the 
glory of our name ; it will render us an object of contempt 
and hatred throughout the world ; and it will cast a stain 
upon our nation which will never be effaced." 

Such was the character of the man who originated the 
expedition on the western frontier in the year 1774. 

It was in January, 1776, that Lord Dunmore ordered 
the town of Norfolk to be destroyed by fire. This was 
two years after his act of perfidy against the Colonists in 
leading them out in the Western wilderness, and then 
abandoning them ; but it displays his character in too 
plain a light for even his friends (if he had any) to defend 
him. 

It was long before the expedition against the Indians in 
1774, that the spirit of resistance against the arbitrary 
conduct of the mother country, was rife among the 
Colonists, and there is no doubt that Lord Dunmore was 
acting under orders from the British court, but that any 
one could imagine for a moment, that a colonial Governor 
could act in such a treacherous manner toward the Colon- 
ists, was impossible. Candor compels us to mention that 
there were some men who sought to extenuate his conduct 
in the affair of this Indian campaign, but the voice of 
impartial history will forever consign to eternal infamy 
the course which he afterward pursued, and which con- 
firmed the suspicions that were at first entertained. 

AVhatever may have been his motives, they gave rise to 
a feeling of distrust among the Colonists, and made them 
relax in their efibrts to colonize at that period, the rich 
lands of western Virginia and Kentucky. 

The cause of Anglo-Saxon colonization in the West 



158 mSTOKY OF THE VALLEY 

may have been temporaril}^ retarded from the course which 
was pursued by this English Governor, but the Colonists 
themselves, forming part of the expedition, again evinced 
that determined bravery and resolution, which were the 
distinsuishino; characteristics of American soldiers. It 
will be seen from what follows, that notwithstanding the 
discouragement they received from the Governor, they 
won some of the brightest laurels on the blood-stained 
fields of Kanawha. 

Before we detail the events of this campaign, it will be 
necessary to mention what were the causes of the war, 
or what in fact led to the offensive operations carried on 
under the administration of the Governor of Virginia. 

In the opinion of Mr. Doddridge, who published his 
" Notes " of these Indian campaigns ;* the affairs at Ba- 
ker's settlement and at Captine Creek, were the causes of 
this disastrous war, but there were others at work which 
have not escaped the attention of historians. It seems, 
that at this early period, there was a dispute between 
Pennsylvania and Virginia, as to the possession of Fort 
Pitt. At the close of the war of 1755, after the evacua- 
tion of Fort Duquesne (afterward called Fort Pitt), by 
the French, the Government of Pennsylvania placed a 
garrison at the fort, or rather they occupied it, as forming 
part of that province's domain. Arthur St. Clair was 
placed in commmand, with instructions to refer for orders, 
in case of attack from the Indians, or others to the Penn- 
sylvanian authorities. 

The proud and haughty Virginians did not brook this 
conduct on the part of their neighbors, and after repeated 
remonstrances had been sent in to the Governor of that 
territory without any effect, Lord Dunmore sent De 

* Doddrige's Notes, Wellsburgh, Virginia, 1824, 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. - 159 

Conolly, his nephew, with a Captain's commission and 
the necessary instructions to take possession of Fort Pitt 
in the name of Virginia, and to dislodge tliose who might 
be in possession of it. Conolly called a meeting of the 
citizens of Redstone and Pittsburgh, for the purpose of 
enforcing his uncle's orders ; but previously to the day for 
the assembling of the meeting, St. Clair arrested Conolly 
and threw him into prison. The meeting, however, w^as 
held, and broken up in the most riotous manner ; some of 
the men got drunk and fired into a neighboring Indian 
village, without, however, doing any injury. Some time 
after these occurrences took place, Conolly got released, 
and immediately raised a corps of men, who drove St. 
Clair away and took possession of the fort in the name 
of Pennsylvania. While in this command he incurred 
very heavy expenses ; so much so, that he w^as fearful his 
uncle might complain, so he endeavored to make the 
whites believe that some of the neighboring tribes were 
not amicably disposed toward them. Of course, hearing 
exaggerated rumors of the atrocities the Indians com- 
mitted on their neighbors farther up the river, they retal- 
iated and committed a few murders. These, with the 
murder of Logan's family, and the affair at Captine 
Creek, were quite sufficient causes to apprehend the most 
fearful hostilitiy of the Indian tribes, and both the white 
man and the savage prepared for the contest. 

Whatever may have been the cause of this war, we 
must feel sympathy for the Indians — they had no doubt 
been foully dealt with at Baker's settlement, and the 
massacre of Logan's family was sufficient to stir up the 
blood of that magnanimous, but unfortunate chief. 

In the earliest work,* which was published after the 



* Recherches Historiques et Politiques sur les Etats Unis de 1' Amer- 
ique Septentrionale, par M. Mazzei, of Virginia. — Colle et Paris. 1788. 



160 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

occurrence of these events, is found the following account 
of the murder of Logan's family, and it is, no doubt, 
correct : 

In the spring of 1Y74, two Indians of the Shawnee tribe 
having kiUed a Yirginian, the whites in the neighborhood 
undertook to exercise vengeance in their usual manner by 
retaliation. Colonel Cresap, who was held in horror by 
the savages, for the mm*ders he had already committed 
of several unfortunate Indians, assembled a party and 
descended the Kanawha for the expedition. Unfortun- 
ately, a canoe was seen crossing from the opposite side of 
the river, filled with women and children, and conducted 
by one man only. Cresap and his party hid themselves, 
and the moment it reached the shore , each singling out 
his victim, dispatched the whole who were on board. 
That canoe contained Logan's family, who had always 
been known for his friendship for the whites. Their 
ingratitude provoked his revenge, and in the war which 
followed, he signalized himself among his compatriots. 
At length, in the autumn of the same year, a decisive 
battle was fought at the mouth of the grand Kanawha, 
and the Indians afterwards sued for peace. Logan alone 
disdained to show himself among the suppliants, but 
fearful that his absence might be taken as a proof of the 
want of sincerity on the part of the Indians, he sent by a 
messegner his celebrated discourse, which was pronounced 
before Lord Dunmore. — Recherches Ilistoriqices^ vol. 4, 
p. 154). 

We have been particular in giving the precise words 
of M. Mazzie, a cotemporaneous writer, and one who was 
not likely to be mistaken, as the truth or falsity of 
Logan's celebrated speech has been made the subject of 
much historical inquiry . * Mr. Jefferson was charged with 

* See American Pioneers, vol. 1, pages 10 and 20. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 161 

being the author of the speech, an accusation which he 
at once repelled in the appendix to his notes on Virginia, 
and when we refer to the many other specimens of Indian 
eloquence, such as Shegenaba's address before the Virginia 
council, (which we have given in another part of this 
work) and others, we can be at no loss to classify them 
as brilliant effusions of native Indian eloquence. 

We have been led into this digression from our desire 
to point out the causes of Dunmore's war. They no 
doubt arose from a deep sense of wrong received at the 
hands of the whites, and as they gave no provocation 
which we can find recorded in history, they are entitled to 
the sympathy of every right-minded person. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

There were two wings of Lord Dunmore's army, which 
were levied in the fall of 17T4, to make war on their 
Indian neighbors. They were taken chiefly from the 
vicinity of Lewisburg, Bedford, and the Holston coun- 
try. At that period Virginia was divided into sixty 
counties, most of which were situated near the seaboard ; 
and from the spirit of disaffection existing about that 
period near Williamsburgh and Jamestown, it is pre- 
sumed Lord Dunmore did not procure many recruits in 
those quarters. 

The left wing — consisting of eight hundred infantry, 
under the command of General Andrew Lewis, and four 
companies of volunteers, of about three hundred men in 
all — took up its line of march from Lewisburg, then 
Camp Union, across Mount Laurel, following the course 
of the Great Kanawha river until they arrived at its 
14 



162 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

junction with the Ohio. The officers in command of 
these regiments were Colonel Charles Lewis of Augusta, 
Colonel William Fleming of Bottetourt, Colonel Shelby 
(whose descendants afterward occupied distinguished 
positions in Kentucky), and Colonel John Field of Cul- 
pepper. 

The right wing, under Lord Dunmore himself, must 
have consisted of the main body of the army, being 
about nineteen hundred men ; as we are told by cotem- 
poraneous writers that the whole force amounted to three 
thousand.* We have seen no account of the particular 
troops under his command ; but if they were militia, they 
must have been raised about Frederickstown and Win- 
chester, and in the northern and eastern parts of Yir- 
ginia. There was also a small detachment under Colonel 
Christian, that was to form a junction with the left wing 
of the army somewhere near the mouth of the Kanawha. 

Before either wing took up its respective line of march 
it was well understood between Lord Dunmore and Gen- 
eral Lewis that the former should strike for Fort Pitt, 
and, descending the Ohio, should form a junction with 
Lewis at the confluence of the Kanawha with that river. 

The left wing arrived at its point of destination, after 
encountering the toils and hardships of a journey through 
the forest, in about three weeks after its departure. When 
they reached the mouth of the Kanawha they dispatched 
emissaries to Fort Pitt to inform his Lordship of their 
arrival, and to await further orders ; but before the mcs- 



* Historical Researches, Vol. I, p. 153. Butler's History of Kentucky 
places the numbers under Lord Dunniore's command at "about one thou- 
sand," necessarily much less skilled in Indian warfare than their fellow- 
soldiers in the western detachment. We are inclined, on the contrary, 
to believe that Lord Dunmore was accompanied by the pick and flower 
of the army. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 163 

sengers returned dispatches were received from Lord 
Dunmore, informing Lewis that the line of military 
operations had heen changed^ and that he vms then on 
his ivay to the Scioto^ where Leiois was to form a junc- 
tion with him in the vicinity of the Shawnee towns. ^ 

To an army which had marched through the wilder- 
ness about two hundred miles, over a rugged road, through 
mountains and through plains, here and there being 
obliged to wade through swamps and morasses, with none 
of the appliances to cross the troops over the Ohio, the 
military order which Lewis received from his governor 
appeared almost impossible to be executed. Was it dic- 
tated by a desire to punish the Shawnees ? It could not 
have been ; for they were then in considerable numbers 
on both sides of the river. "Was it done as an act of skill- 
fulness on the part of a military general? It was not; 
for the rules of war and military tactics would prescribe 
the junction, or at least the accessibility, of the two wings 
of the army before they attacked the enemy. Was it 
done to facilitate his march against the enemy, and to 
bring them to battle? It was not, for he knew that the 
Indians had mustered in considerable strength on the 
south side of the Ohio, and were prepared for war. Was 
it, finally, done with a view to the interests of the Colo- 
nists ? It was not; for if Lewis had followed his orders, 
he would have left the whole Western frontier of Vir- 
ginia unprotected, with the Ohio between him and his 
enemy, and the Colonists exposed to the ruthless attacks 
of infuriated savages. 

What, then, was the reason, that Lord Dunmore devi- 
ated from the line of operations at first agreed upon, and 
formed a diversion of the troops ? 

* Lord Dunruore's conduct was at first approved of by the Virginians, 
but it was afterward denounced. Writers generally have disapproved of it. 



164 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

It was that he, Lord Diinmore, then the unflinching 
enemy of the Colonies, knew before his departure from 
Williamsburgh, that the celebrated convention of Vir- 
ginia delegates was about assembling in that city.* Dur- 
ing his absence he was informed of everything that occur- 
red, and heard that it was to meet a second time at Rich- 
mond, in the month of March following. In the mean- 
time, he ordered the election of representatives to the 
General Assembly : the people elected the same as they 
had chosen for the convention. Eight months after he 
levied this army to tight the Indians, Lord Dunmore was 
himself a fugitive from the vengeance of an injured com- 
munity, and sought refuge on board of a vessel of war. 

What is the conclusion at which we must arrive, that 
if Lewis's army were cut up by the Indians, he. Lord 
Dunmore, would have less enemies to contend against? 
Beside, what an opportunity it would afford him to bring 
the Indians over on the side of the English against the 
refractory Colonists. 

On the 9th of October, Lewis received these military 
dispatches from the General commanding, but circum- 
stances prevented him from complying with them, for on 
the 10th, scouts informed that brave commander that a 
large body of Indians was in the vicinity, and w^as bearing 
down toward the main division of the left wing. Lewis 
immediately ordered the detachments of troops from 
Bottetourt, under Colonel Fleming, and those from 
Augusta under Colonel Charles Lewis, to form in division 
and proceed up the Ohio to reconnoiter the enemy's move- 
ments. They did not remain long in abeyance, for about 
four or five hundred yards from the encampment they saw 
the Indians drawn up in line, ready to give them battle. 

Mazzei : vol. 1, page 153. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 165 

It began a little after sunrise, the two armies occupying a 
triangular space at the junction of the Kanawha with the 
Ohio, and having rather a slight elevation along the 
shores of Crooked creek, (a branch of the river), forming 
as it were, the base of the triangle. In this awkward 
position our troops had to fight, relying on their superior 
skill and military tactics to gain the vantage ground over 
their enemies. These consisted of the Delawares, the 
Iroquois, Wyandots, and Shawnees, and they must have 
greatly outnumbered their opponents, for the scout in- 
formed General Lewis " that he had seen a body of the 
enemy covering five acres of ground as closely as they 
could stand."* 

Thus through the treachery of Lord Dunmore was our 
brave but small army pitted against an overwhelming 
force of savage foes, with no opportunity of retreating, 
and with no hope of safety, but by fighting. The clang 
of arms resounded on that day throughout the forest, and 
in the first rush of our brave countrymen toward their 
enemies, three of our colonels, Lewis, Fleming and Field, 
lay stretched on the earth, mangled corpses. Seeing the 
destruction the enemy was causing, and fearful for the 
consequences, General Lewis ordered a detour of three 
companies, under the command of Captains Stuart, Shelby 
and Matthews, along Crooked creek, under the conceal- 
ment of the elevation we have spoken of, and the brush- 
wood, to make an attack in the rear of the enemy. Tliis 
military maneuver was attended with entire success. The 
enemy fearing that a strong reinforcement was advancing 
in their rear, took to flight and reached their towns on the 
other side of the Ohio. In this memorable battle, three 
colonels, five captains, three lieutenants, and several 

* Proceedings of the Virginia Historical Society, vol. 1, page 45. 



166 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

other subalterns, amounting in the whole to seventy -five 
men killed, and about one hundred and forty men 
were wounded, almost every fifth man in the detachment.* 

In this battle was engaged the fiower of all the Indian 
warriors on the shores of the Ohio ; there was the brave 
Cornstalk, the famous Shawnee chief. Red Hawk, the 
pride of the Delawares, and the magnanimous Logan, 
seeking revenge for the wrongs he had sufl'ered at the 
hands of the white man. Fearful was the havoc which 
was that day made in the ranks of these foes ; it was not 
ascertained, for whenever any of their number fell, the 
body was immediately consigned to the bosom of the 
Ohio, the waters of which, flowing over their riddled 
corpses, concealed from the enemy the number of their 
victims. 

It was a frightful contest, perhaps the most severe that 
was ever fought between the Indians and the white man ; 
but it was a war between civilization and barbarism, 
and religion and heathenism. The strong arms and 
bold hearts of our countrymen were enlisted in the cause 
of Anglo-Saxon domination in the New "World, and they 
were impelled onward by the consciousness that they were 
instruments in the hands of an overruling Providence to 
prepare other and higher destinies for mankind — while 
the Indian, the aboriginal inhabitant of the forest, was 
fighting in defense of his home and fireside, for the pro- 
tection of his wife and children, and all that was nearest 
and dearest to him on earth. There were strong feelings 
and noble impulses that entered into that contest, but the 
result could not be doubtful. Sooner or later the Indian 
would be obliged to make way before the indomitable en- 
ergy, the iron will, and steady perseverance of the old 
English Colonists of America. 

* Butler's Kentucky, Introduction, page 60. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 167 

After the battle, General Lewis was joined by Colonels 
Christian and Floyd and a detachment of about two liun- 
dred men, with whom he proceeded with the remainder 
of his small army, to effect a junction with Dunmore and 
march together to the Shawnees' towns. As for Lord 
Dunmore, he left Fort Pitt, and from thence descended 
to about seventy miles from the mouth of the Kanawha, 
wdiere he built Fort Gore and left a part of his provisions 
there. Having heard of the approach of Lewis's brigade, 
he sent orders to that commander to retrace his footsteps 
and return homeward ; but Lewis did not seem inclined 
to obey them. That officer wished now that the enemy 
had been defeated, and Dunmore was within a few miles 
of their towns and principal villages to dictate terms to 
the conquered. Dunmore, it is said, was opposed to this 
course, and went in person to Lewis's camp, to endeavor 
to get him to return home, and while there complimented 
the officers and men for their distinguished bravery in the 
battle of Kanawha. Lewis at length acceded to this re- 
quest, and left Dunmore with his small army in the midst 
of hostile tribes, not far from their towns and villages. 

That unworthy Governor was safe. He purchased 
peace with the Indians at the expense of his own honor 
and character, when he might have dictated terms that 
would have ensured the tranquillity of the frontiers for a 
number of years. Dreading the threatened storm, the 
noise of w^hich he heard in the distance, and viewing tlie 
aspect of affairs at Williamsburgh, he conciliated the 
savages to enlist them as allies in the English cause 
against those very Colonists whom he had brought from 
their homes to take part in this warfare. 

The treaty of peace was concluded at Camp Charlotte, 
near Chillicothe, on the Scioto, but the Colonists gained 
little or nothing under its provisions, and having promised 



168 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

to meet them again for further negotiations, the ensuing 
spring Dunmore returned home. 

In this year, 1774, James Harrod founded Harrodsburg, 
and it v;as also the period when a land company was 
formed in North Carolina, called the Transylvania Com- 
pany, of which the chief member was Colonel Richard 
Henderson, another pioneer in western history. Hender- 
son, accompanied by Colonel Hart, visited the Cherokees 
for the purpose of purchasing a part of their lands, and 
forming a settlement. With the assistance of Boone, he 
finally succeeded in making a purchase of a large tract of 
country, for which the price was fixed at ten thousand 
pounds sterling. Dunmore was displeased with this 
action on the part of Henderson, and hearing that he was 
in the Indian country, issued a proclamation warning the 
Indians about him. 

This did not deter our hardy little band of adventurers, 
and continuing their journey in the forest, they formed a 
settlement at Boonesborough, in April, 1775. About 
that period this was the principal settlement, beside Har- 
rodsburgh, the Boiling Spring settlement, and St. Asaph 
in Lincoln county, where Benjamin Logan, who had 
crossed the mountains w4th Henderson in 1774:, built a 
station, which afterward became well known.* 

During Henderson's visit this year, he summoned dele- 
gates from the difierent settlements to organize a form of 
government, and writers of western history have dignified 
this assembly by the appellation of a Legislature, but we 
are at a loss to know by what authority this body acted, 
or what force their decrees would have, either among their 
own members or the the red men who were lurking about 
their homes, in the view of setting all law and govern- 
ment at defiance. 

» Annals of the West, page 141 . 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 169 

In the chain of events, it is necessary to refer to the 
American revolution. When in Virginia, the country 
which first distinguished itself for its discoveries in the 
West, as well as for its opposition to arbitrary authority, 
the patriot Henry exclaimed in the hall of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly, that " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the 

First his Cromwell, and George the Third his ," he 

was interrupted by cries of treason, treason : and mildly 
looking around, he added, " and George the Third might 
profit by their example. If that be treason let them show 
it to me." When he uttered these memorable w^ords, he 
little thought that his countrymen were then laying the 
foundations of a Republic in the West, which was to be a 
terror to all evil doers, and a break -water against mon- 
archy in the western world. When he raised his hands 
to heaven, imploring its protection against tyranny and 
invoking its blessing on the heads of those who were 
resisting the arbitrary mandates of a foreign power, he 
knew not that countless thousands of his fellow-country- 
men would one day be found along the shores of the 
Mississippi and Ohio, who would regard his precepts as 
the code of their political belief, and worship his memory 
as one of the sages and heroes of their country. 

But the American revolution was not without its trials 
and its temptations on the heart of man. It showed how 
human passions could be triumphant over the better part 
of human nature, and how men, lost to every sense of 
shame and honor could resort to the most unworthy means 
to accomplish their ends. The unholy league between 
the British authorities and the wild savages of the West 
for the indiscriminate massacre of the men, women and 
children of America, is a foul blot on humanity which 
time will never efface. At first they were not successful 
in entering into this alliance, but at length the savage was 
15 



170 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

seen fighting side by side with the English soldier, exult- 
ing over the scalps of the enemy, which his ruthless ally 
would exhibit to his view. 

It was not long after the battle of Bunker Hill, that 
emissaries were sent to the West to solicit the co-operation 
of the Indians, and particularly the Iroquios or Five Na- 
tions with the British army. They knew the influence 
which this people exercised over the Delawares, Shawnees, 
Cherokees, and other tribes to the south-west, and they 
tried to enlist them in their service. But the Iroquois 
would not at first listen to the proposals of these emissa- 
ries, as they thought they had no direct interest in joining 
either one side or the other. The old chiefs, when they 
heard of these difficulties, looked on them as providential, 
and believed that the sanguinary scenes which would 
follow, would only be an expiation for the evils they had 
made them endure in their endeavors to drive them away 
from their homes in the forest. They said, " Look, the 
flames of war are kindled between men of the same 
nation — they are disputing among themselves for the 
hunting grounds which they have taken from us. Why 
shall we embrace their quarrels, and what friend, what 
enemy shall we choose ? When the red men carry on 
war, do the white men come among us to take part with 
one or the other ? No, they allow our tribes to become 
weakened, and one to be destroyed by the other. They 
wait until the earth, bedewed with our blood, may lose 
its people and become their inheritance. Let them in 
their turn exhaust their strength and destroy themselves ; 
we shall then recover, when they have ceased to exist, the 
forests, the mountains, and lakes, wdiich belonged to our 
ancestors. 

It is a pity, that these were not always the sentiments 
which prevailed among these Indian tribes, but it is well 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. lYl 

known, that Colonel Johnson, and Messrs Campbell and 
Saint Luc, succeeded in bringing over the Iroquois to 
the side of the English. They tampered with them by 
means of gold, and presents, which they liberally dis- 
tributed among them, and when Mr. Cazeau, the parti- 
san of Congress, went among them to endeavor to ensure 
at least their neutrality in the contest ; in answer to the 
remark which he made, "that it was a war between 
brethren, and that after the reconciliation, if they remained 
neutral, they might become the enemies of the one and the 
other;" they replied, " that the young men did not like to 
remain inactive in times of hostility." 

They entered into a league with the English, " when 
the leaves should appear on the trees, in the following 
spring," to unite their forces and make war against the 
" Long Knives. ''^^ 

In the interval, however, it seems, they became impa- 
tient, for Colonel Johnson, with a body of Iroquois went 
to notiiy Carleton, " that it was necessary to give the 
Indian tribes employment, as they were not accustomed 
to remain so long inactive in times of war." The Eng- 
lish General replied, that "he must try and amuse the 
savages a little while longer, as he did not consider it 
prudent to employ them for the present. "t 

The first regular engagement between the savages and 
the American forces, took place at the attack on Fort 
Stanwix on the 3d of August 1777, although they were 
adjuncts of the English army in several engagements 
before that period. Colonel St. Leger was instructed by 
General Burgoyne, to make a division of the main body 
of the army with eight hundred men and a large number 



* It was thus they termed the Colonists. 

t Extracts from the Records of Indian transactions, under the super- 
intendence of Colonel Gu j Carleton during the year 1775. 



172 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

of savages, to proceed to reduce Fort Stanwix, built on 
the spot now occupied by the little village of Rome in 
Oneida County, Kew York, and to descend the Mohawk, 
and rejoin Burgoyne's army at Albany. On the third of 
August, he arrived before Fort Stanwix, which he imme- 
diately invested, but after a long siege, in which a bloody 
combat took place at Oriskany, between a part of his 
forces, under the orders of Sir John Johnson, and eight 
hundred of the Americans, who had come to the rescue 
of the fort, he was compelled to abandon the siege, and 
withdraw his forces. St. Leger and his savage allies fled 
with such precipitation, that he left a part of his forces 
and ammunition behind him.* 

It is needless to remind the reader, that in Stark's cele- 
brated victory at Bennington, which took place during 
the same month, that brave General routed both the 
English and the savages, wdio fled before the well directed 
fire of American musketry. The fact is mentioned, to 
show that the English did not derive much benefit from 
the confederation with the Iroquois nations. It was an 
unholy alliance from the first, and it deprived those 
savage tribes of all sympathy which the American people 
mio:lit have been inclined to feel for them, had thev re- 
mained neutral in the war. 

But it was the influence of their example, which our 
countrymen dreaded, there were the Delawares, the 
Shawnees, the Cherokees, and a host of the smaller tribes, 
who were infesting our South-western frontier, and it was 
necessary to repress this evil influence, in order to insure 
our tranquillity in that quarter. 

General Sullivan, the following year, was ordered to 
repair with a strong force, to give battle to these Iroquois 

* Colonel St. Leger's letter to Grcneral Burgoyne. An original and cor- 
rect account of Burgoyne's campaign, by Charles Neilson, Esq. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 173 

tribes, wherever they should find them. lie skirted along 
the shores of Lake Ontario, and having arrived in their 
head-quarters, he scattered these tribes in all directions, 
and drove them from their homes and hunting-grounds. 
The Iroquois took refuge to the north of the Great Lakes, 
on a territory which had been granted to them by the 
English Government, but they never recovered their pris- 
tine strength and vigor as a people. They were an idle, 
dissolute set of wanderers, and from the strongest became 
almost the weakest of the Indian tribes. In after years, 
one would hardly have been able to recognize among the 
strolling savages in our northern settlements, the features 
or the lineaments of those brave warriors, who followed 
Pontiac to the field of battle. A just retribution awaited 
them for the cruelties they perpetrated during the 
Revolutionary war, and they were no longer courted by 
their friends nor feared by their enemies. 

We shall now revert to what was going on along the 
South-western frontiers. 



CHAPTER XV. 

While matters thus stood among the Indian tribes in 
the Korth-West, it is no wonder that the Delawares, 
Shawnees, and Cherokees became restive and dis- 
contented in the South. They had heard of the strong 
confederation of the Northern tribes to assist the English 
in their wars against the Americans, but the former at 
least did not seem to understand the nature of the dispute 
between them. They iancied it was only some temporary 
difference which had sprung up between the whites on 
on either side of the "Great Salt Lake," and they did not 



174 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

seem disposed to take part in the fight. The Shawnees 
and Clierokees were more ready to buckle on their armor 
and prepare for the contest. The latter were more 
dreaded, as they infested the whole Western frontier of 
South Carolina, and became the terror of the inhabitants. 
There is no doubt that emissaries were sent among 
them from the Iroquois,* and that bribes were very freely 
offered to induce them to join the royal cause. Indeed, 
it is positively asserted, that the English government 
gave the Iroquois money in order to bring about a union 
of all the North' Western tribes, including the Shawnees 
and Cherokees, and that nothing but the defeat at Fort 
Stanwix, and other places, prevented the accomplishment 
of an object which, if successful, would have greatly 
interfered with the plan of operations during the Revolu- 
tionary campaign. 

Congress sent emissaries among the Iroquois to in- 
duce them at least to preserve their neutrality, and M. 
Cazeau, and another Canadian, who were friendly to the 
Americans, volunteered their services to perform the duty. 
They rendered essential service, but were not successful, 
as was before observed, in preventing the Iroquois from 
confederating with their enemies. 

About this period, 1775, Conolly, Lord Dunmore's 
nephew, was detected in a plot against Congress and the 
republican cause, w^hich had been matured under the spe- 
cial instructions of Dunmore himself. This man w^as a 
violent Tory, and had rendered himself particularly ob- 
noxious from his refractory conduct at Pittsburgh, and his 
violent and overbearing disposition. He endeavored to 
form a league among the Indians to attack the forts in 
the possession of the Americans, and after having re- 

*Babie — " Voyages chez les Peuples Sauvages. — Vol. 3d, page 216. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 175 

duced them, to join Lord Dunmore in Virginia, and carry 
on a desolating warfare against all those on the frontier 
who were supposed to be friendly to the republican cause. 
In this, however, he was thw^arted by the vigilance of 
those who closely watched such men as Conolly and all 
the suspected adherents of royalty. Having been to the 
east, and while on his return, he was w^aylaid by some 
Americans, to whom he immediately presented a written 
document purporting to be the orders he should follow in 
his intercourse with the Indians in the West; but our 
wary countrymen were not satisfied with his papers, sothe}^ 
searched his person and accouterments, and in the lining 
of his saddle discovered another set of orders (the secret 
orders of Lord Dunmore) concealed in such a manner as 
almost to defy detection. He was immediately arrested 
and kept in confinement for some time, the object of no 
man's pity, and scorned and hated by the Americans. 

Notwithstanding these difficulties, many settlers were 
establishing themselves in Western Virginia, on the 
Transylvania Company's lands, and which was soon after 
known as the county of Kentucky; but the trials and 
dangers of a life in the forest, deterred some from pro- 
ceeding to the West, and, indeed, induced others who 
had already located themselves west of the Blue Kidge, 
to seek more peaceable homes, where they and their fam- 
ilies might be considered in safety. 

The history of this period (from 1776 to 1778), al- 
though it may not be descriptive of any leading events, 
having an important bearing on the political state of the 
few settlers west of the mountains, is yet replete with 
incidents of border warfare of the most romantic interest. 
Deeds of noble daring and of heroism were performed 
within the recesses of the forest, which cast imperishable 
honor on the actors, and elevated them from the charac- 



176 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

ter of men to that of heroes. Nor were these confined 
to the male sex — women, and even young girls,* dis- 
played a degree of courage and intrepidity in the trials 
they had to go through, which proved they were equal to 
the circumstances in which they were placed. In the 
pages of romance we have read of many instances of 
heroism among the female settlers in the West, which we 
may have attributed to the glowing imagination of the 
writer, and the borrowed ornaments of a redundant fancy ; 
but fiction has never yet come up to the truth in painting 
in proper colors the self-sacrificing spirit, the boldness, 
the bravery, and magnanimity of the fair daughters of 
America in the Western wilderness. 

While they attended to their domestic dudes in the 
rude log-huts or shanties which had been erected to afibrd 
them shelter against the cruelty of man and the ferocity 
of wild beasts, they were at all times prepared to share 
the dangers of warfare, and by assisting their husbands or 
brothers in casting leaden bullets, or keeping their rifles 
in order, contributed much to alleviate the burden which 
was cast on those who were hardy enough to seek their 
fortunes in the neighborhood of the savage. 

In this connection may be mentioned the establishment 
of the Moravian villages, on the Muskingum, called 
Salem; Gnaden-huetten, (the tents of grace,) and Scho- 
enbrund, (the beautiful spring.)| They had also, in 1788, 
a settlement called Bethlehem, on the Lehigh, in Penn- 
sylvania. J The history of these Moravian Indians, as 
they were called, is replete with melancholy interest. 

The first gathering of those Indians into a good degree 
of civil and religious order, took place about the year 

*Miss Elizabeth Lane's conduct at the siege of Fort Henrj. 
t Hall's Sketches of the West, vol 1, page 208. 
t American Pioneer, vol, 2, page 116. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 177 

1754, under the direction of one of them named Papun- 
hank. The place of their residence at that time was at 
Wihaloosing, on the Susquehanna, about two hundred 
miles from Philadelphia.* In 1771, these Indians, meet- 
ing with difficulty from an increase of white settlers near 
them, by which spiritous liquors were brought to their 
towns, they removed to the Muskingum, a tributary of 
the Ohio. In their peregrination thither they were ac- 
companied by some of the Moravians, who had long 
resided with them, and by their careful attention both to 
their civil and religious concerns, never leaving them, 
even in their times of greatest danger and difficulty, a 
near and steady connection between them took place. 

During the Revolutionary War, these Indians, adher- 
ing to the principles they had long professed, absolutely 
refused to take any part in the struggle, notwithstanding 
the threats and repeated abuse they received on that 
account from other tribes, particularly those parties which 
passed through their towns on their way to the frontier of 
Virginia. They sometimes succeeded in dissuading these 
marauders from carrying out their hostile intentions, and 
prevailed on them to go back again. At other times they 
warned the frontier settlers of their danger. 

This humane conduct being considered as destructive 
to the hostile proceedings of the tribes at w^ar, was at 
length made the pretense of carrying them oif. 

Accordingly on the 4th of August, 1781, a string of 
vmmjpiim was sent by the Chief of the Wyandots, who 
resided at Scmdosld with a message, letting them know, 
he was coming wdth a number of warriors, but bidding 
them to be not afraid, for he was their friend. In a few 

*Frora a -work entitled "Some Observations on the Indian natives of 
this Continent." — Philadelphia: 1784, 



178 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

days after, two hundred and twenty warriors arrived, 
when calling a counsel of the head men of the three 
Moravian towns, they acquainted them, that they were 
come to take them away, giving as the reason, "That 
they and their Indians were a great obstruction to them 
in their war-path. They returned them this answer, 
"That it was impossible for them to remove at that time, 
and leave their corn behind them, lest they and their 
children should perish with hunger in the wilderness." 
To this the Chief of the Wyandots at first seemed to 
attend, but being instigated by some white men in their 
company,* they persisted in their resolution, and after 
killing many of the cattle and hogs, ripping up their 
bedding, and committing many other outrages, they com- 
pelled about three or four hundred persons to leave the 
towns. This occurred on the 28th of August, and was 
continued in the three towns during September. After a 
tedious journey in the wilderness, they arrived at a branch 
of Sandusky Creek, where the majority of them were 
ordered to remain. Some of their principal men were 
sent to Major Schuyler de Peyster, the English Com- 
mander at Fort Detroit, who commanded and exhorted 
them to remain peaceable. 

In 1792, these good Moravians, finding corn scarce and 
dear at Sandoski, desired liberty to return to their settle- 
ment, to fetch some of their corn, of wliich they had left 
above two hundred acres standing, which when granted, 
many of them went, among whom were several widows 
with their children, some of whom had been subjected to 
such extreme want, as to eat the carcasses of the dead 
cattle and horses. 



* Possibly Simon Girty (a notorious white renegade during the war), 
and his companions — see the late work of Ex Governor Reynolds of 
Illinois — " Pioneer History of Illinois," page 65. Belleville, 1852. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 179 

Their misfortunes did not end here. It seems that 
these poor people appeared anxious to remain in their old 
settlements, but they were not permitted.* The account 
of the destruction of the Moravians in the Pennsylvania 
Gazette, is to tliis efiect, that the people being greatly 
alarmed, and having received intelligence, that the Indian 
towns on the Muskingum had not moved as they had 
been told, a number of men properly provided, collected 
and rendezvoused on the Ohio, opposite the Mingo bot- 
tom, with a design to surprise the above towns, one 
hundred and sixty of whom swam the river, and pro- 
ceeded to the towns on the Muskingum, where the Indians 
had collected a large quantity of provisions to supply 
their war-parties. 

They arrived at the town in the night, undiscovered, 
attacked the Moravians in their cabins, and so completely 
surprised them, that they killed and scalped upward of 
ninety, but a few making their escape, about forty of 
whom were warriors, the rest being old women and 
children. About eighty horses fell into their hands, 
which they loaded with the plunder, the greatest part furs 
and skins — the party returned to the Ohio, without the 
loss of one man. 

Soon after the death of these Indians, about five 
hundred men, probably encouraged by this easy conquest, 
assembled at the old Mingos^ on the west side of the 
Ohio, and being equipped on horseback, set out for San- 
doski, where the remaining part of the Moravian Indians 
resided in order to destroy that settlement, and other 
Indian towns in those parts, but the Wyandots and other 
Indians, having some knowledge of their approach, met 
them near Sandoski, when an engagement ensued, in 
which some of the assailants were killed and several 

* Pennsylvania Gazette of April 17th, 1782. 



180 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

taken prisoners, among whom was the commander, Col. 
Crawford and his son-in-law. The Indians put the Col. 
to a cruel death, by burning him at the stake, and killed 
his son-in-law with the other prisoners. 

Doubtless the cruelty exercised on the Colonel and the 
death of the prisoners taken at Sandoski, was in a great 
measure owing to the murder of the peaceable Moravians, 
at which they expressed much displeasure. 

This grievous transaction appears in a yet more afflict- 
ing point of view, when it is considered, that though 
many threats had been thrown out against those Indians, 
both by the English and Americans, yet they took no 
steps for their security, trusting in the care of Heaven, 
and the protection of the Governmont, under which they 
had lived many years with due submission. But such is 
the corrupting nature of war, that it hardens the heart to 
a fearful degree of insensibility.* 

It must be added, that these good Moravians, and the 
Indians whom they converted were Christians, but they 
were not persecuted on account of their opinions, but 
rather for some proceedings, which admitted of doubt, as 
to which party they belonged, and being neutrals, their 
motives were suspected, and their actions closely scanned 

* The account of this transaction in Hall, vol. 1, page 208, and sequel, 
and in the Western Annals, Lst edit., page 244, differs rciaterially from 
that in the text, taken from the Pennsylvania Gazette of April 17th, 1782, 
and the work, published in Philadelphia, before referred to in 1784, but 
the author prefers taking the words of cotemporaneous writers, or those 
who wrote almost immediately after the transactions occurred, rather 
than the accounts given by more recent authors. Salem and Shocnbrun 
were afterward re-established in 1799. By an ordinance of Congress, 
passed May 20th, 1785, the towns of Gnadenhutten, Shoenbrun and Salem, 
containing 4000 acres each, were reserved for the sole use of the Chris- 
tianized Indians, settled in those places. This reserve was confirmed 
by an act passed July 27, 1787, and the title vested in the Moravian 
brethren at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 181 

by both the one party and the other, the whites and the 
Indians. 

The Pittsburgh conference with the Indian tribes, which 
had been held in the year 1775, had been productive of 
no good effects ; the spirit of disaffection was rife among 
the savages and it was augmented by several acts of re- 
taliation on the part of the whites, Ko decisive blow 
was struck between the contending parties on our western 
frontier during the winter of 1775, nor the following year, 
but various onslaughts and murderous attacks on the 
whites, continued to be perpetrated, and were carried to 
such a length, that many returned to the East, quite dis- 
heartened with the state of affairs in Western Virginia. 
At length an event occurred, which many thought would 
bring matters to a crisis. This was the murder of Corn- 
stalk (the chief who had so nobly fought at the battle of 
Kanawha), which occurred in the spring of 1777. He 
met with his death, it is said, by treachery on the very 
spot, which he had rendered memorable by his exertions 
to secure the independence of his own native tribes in 
the forests. The accounts have differed with regard to 
the part which the commanding officer at Point Pleasant 
(Kanahwa), took in this transaction, but we believe im- 
partial history will entirely exonerate the American 
officer from any participation in the matter. It was 
owing to the misguided passions of two or three of the 
soldiers, who revenged by the death of Cornstalk, the 
murder of one of their own friends and countrymen. 

However, the blow was struck — no matter from whom 
it proceeded, a mighty chief had fallen, one who had con- 
tributed to the success of the Indian arms, and it was 
natural, that they should wish to avenge his death. War, 
"war to the knife" was written in letters of blood on 
the hearts of the savage, although it was not declared by 



182 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

the lips of man. Ko such useless formalities were ob- 
served among the red men, they drew their poisoned 
arrow from the quiver, and plunged it at once into the 
bosom of their foe. 

The siege of Fort Henry, which began on the 27th of 
September, 1777, was the most memorable event in the 
outbreak of the troubles in that year. Fort Fincastle, at 
the mouth of Wheeling creek, afterward changed to the 
name of Fort Henry, in honor of the distinguished states- 
man of that name, was nothing but a stockade, with a 
block house at each corner, and having stout pickets 
eight feet in height, extending the whole length of the 
fort. It is not known whether there were any military 
intrenchments thrown up round the fort, or whether pali- 
sades were erected to afford security to the position. 
From the description given by writers,* it is evident the 
works were not in a state to stand a long siege and it is 
surprising, how they could have so successfully resisted 
the besieging forces on that occasion. It was in 1771, 
that the Yirginia Legislature gave orders to occupy Fort 
Fincastle with a force of twenty-five men, who were 
placed under the command of a lieutenant; when the 
siege took place, there were but forty-two fighting men in 
the garrison, having sufficient muskets to use, but with 
a scanty supply of ammunition. There was a small 
village on the road leading from the base of the hill to 
the fort, consisting of about twenty-five or thirty log 
houses, the inhabitants of which, in view of approaching 
danger had of course taken refuge within the stockade. 
At the base of the hill, there was a cornfield which the 
inhabitants cultivated, on which there was a pile of logs 
and brushwood, which the inhabitants had collected for 
their domestic use. As will be seen afterward, this 

* American Pioneer, vol. 2, page 305. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 183 

afforded a temporary plan of concealment for two of tlie 
heroes of that memorable siege. 

On the twenty-sixth of September, as Captain Joseph 
Ogle, with two or three men, w^as descending the Ohio in 
\n.^ pirogue^ on his return from an excursion a few miles 
above Wheeling, he observed in the distance a smoke, 
which appeared to him to be caused by the burning of a 
house a short distance below the fort. He immediately 
apprized Col. Shepherd, his commanding officer, of the 
circumstance, who sent two men down the Ohio to ascer- 
tain the fact. We are not told whether these men re- 
turned to the fort, but we know, that Shepherd's sus- 
picions were confirmed, and he took measures to bring in 
all the settlers from a distance, into the fort. The Col. 
had before heard of the concentration of a large force of 
Indians near Sandoski, under the command of Simon 
Girty, and he feared for the worst. His fears were re- 
alized, for on the morning of the 27th, having dispatched 
a white man and a negro to bring in some horses, which 
were grazing near the cornfield, the former was shot down 
by some savages, who were lurking near the spot, and the 
negro made the best of his way back into the fort. When 
Colonel Shepherd heard the negro relate the story, he 
forthwith dispatched Captain Mason with fourteen men, 
to reconnoiter the ground and dislodge the Indians. He 
had hardly proceeded across the field and was approach- 
ing the creek, when he was surrounded by tlie whole of 
Girty 's forces, and seeing his danger, he fought his way 
nobly through the ranks of the savages, in his attempt to 
reach the fort. In this fatal encounter, the whole party 
with the exception of Mason and two others, was cut to 
pieces. It is surprising how any escaped, but Mason and 
his two comrades being hotly pursued by the savages, they 
encountered them single handed, and having dispatched 



184 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

them, managed to find a hiding place under the pile of 
logs and brushwood in the cornfield, where they remained 
in concealment until the siege was raised. 

Another scouting party consisting of Captain Ogle and 
twelve volunteers emerged from the fort, but they met 
with the same fate, for with the exception of the Captain 
and four others, there were none left to tell the tale of 
their disaster. These managed to efiect an almost miracu- 
lous escape from the overwhelming number of their 
opponents. 

Soon the battle commenced, and as the description 
given of it by George S. Kiernan, Esq.,* is prepared from 
materials of the most authentic character, it is here 
inserted : 

" The enemy advanced in two ranks, in open order, their 
left flank reaching to the river-bank, and their right 
extending into the woods, as far as the eye could reach. 
After random shots were fired and instantly a loud whoop 
arose on the enemy's left flank, which passed as if by 
concert, along the line to the extreme right, till the wel- 
kin was filled with a chorus of the most wild and startling 
character. This salute was responded to by a few well- 
directed rifle-shots from the lower blockhouses, which 
produced a manifest confusion in the ranks of the besieg- 
ers. They discontinued their shooting, and retired a few 
paces, probably to await the coming up of their right 
flank, which it would seem had been directed to make a 
general sweep of the bottom, and then approach the 
stockade on the eastern side. 

" At this moment the garrison of Fort Henry number- 

* This gentleman contributed an article on the siege of Fort Henry, to 
be found in 2d American Pioneer, page 305, which for eloquence in the 
description, and truthfulness in the details, is not surpassed by that of 
any other writer. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 185 

ed no more than twelve men and bojs. The fortunes of 
the day, so far, had been fearfully against them ; two of 
their best officers and more than two-thirds of their origi- 
nal force were missing. The exact fate of their comrades 
was unknown to them, but they had every reason to ap- 
prehend that they had been cut to pieces. Still they were 
not dismayed ; their mothers, sisters, wives, and children, 
were assembled around them ; they had a sacred charge 
to protect, and they resolved to fight to the last extremity, 
and confidently trusted in Heaven for the successful issue 
of the combat," 

* # * * * # 

"It w\is yet quite early in the morning, the sun not 
having appeared above the summit of Wheeling Hill, 
and the day is represented to have been one of surpassing 
beauty. The Indians, not entirely concealed from the view 
of the garrison, kept up a brisk fire for the space of six 
hours w^ithout intermission. The little garrison, in spite 
of its heterogeneous character, was, with scarcely an 
exception, conposed of sharp-shooters. Several of them, 
whose experience in Indian warfare gave them a remark- 
able degree of coolness and self-possession in the face of 
danger, infused confidence into the young, and as they 
never fired at random, their bullets, in most cases, took 
efiect. The Indians, on the contrary, gloated with their 
previous success, their tomahaw^ks reeking with the blood 
of Mason's and Ogle's men, and all of them burning 
with impatience to rush into the fort and complete their 
work of butchery, discharged their guns against the 
pickets, the gate, the logs of the blockhouses, and every 
other object that seemed to shelter a white man. Their 
fire was thus thrown away. At length some of their most 
daring warriors rushed up close to the blockhouses, and 
attempted to make more sure work by firing through the 
16 



186 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

logs ; but these reckless savages received from the well- 
directed rifles of the frontier's men, the fearful reward of 
their temerity. About one o'clock, the Indians discon- 
tinued their fire, and fell back against the base of the 

hill." 

****** 

"Again they renewed the attack; again they were 
repulsed ; and they at length made the attempt to force 
the eastern gate, which the besieged having observed, 
completely thwarted their effort. Ko means were left 
untried during this protracted siege to carry the fort. 
They even converted a hollow maple log into a fieldpiece, 
by plugging up one of its ends with a block of wood. 
To give it additional strength, a quantity of chains taken 
from the blacksmith's shop, encompassed it from one end 
to the other. It was heavily charged with powder, and 
then filled to the muzzle with pieces of stone, slugs of 
iron, and such other substances as could be found. This, 
however, was of no avail, the cannon burst, scattering 
death and destruction to all around. Finding all their 
efibrts ineffectual, the Indians retired from the ground, 
and raised the siege." 

Such is, in substance, the account which Mr. S. Kier- 
nan gives of this memorable event. He adds, "that 
during the investiture, not a man within the fort was 
killed, and only one wounded, and that wound a slight 
one. But the loss sustained by the whites during the 
enemy's inroad, was remarkably severe. Of the forty- 
two men who were in the fort on the morning of the 27th, 
no less than twenty-three were killed in the corn field 
before the siege commenced. The enemy's loss was from 
sixty to one hundred." 

But if the heroic conduct of those within the fort 
wrings from us a tribute of praise, what shall we say of 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 187 

the noble self-devotion and masculine spirit and courage 
of those without it ? Does not language fail to portray 
in terms suitable to the theme, the chivalrous feelings 
which animated the bosom of Miss Elizabeth Zane, the 
sister of one of the founders of the West^ who, at the 
hazard of her life, voluntarily came forward and offered 
her services to the garrison, when the ammunition was 
about being exhausted, to leave the stockade and go for a 
keg of powder, which was in the house of one of her 
kinsmen, about sixty yards from the gate of the fort? 
She had reached the desired spot without molestation, 
unobserved, excepting by a few straggling savages in the 
vicinity, when on her return the burden she was carrying 
being noticed by the assailants, quick the balls whizzed 
round the noble girl, but they flew wide of the mark, and 
gallantly and proudly she bore the precious charge to the 
garrison. 

Such acts as these give us a lofty idea of the self-sacri- 
ficing spirit of woman in times of danger and distress. 
They elevate and adorn the female character, and show 
what we may expect, when calamities overtake us, from 
the fair daughters of America. 

McColloch's leap on horseback, over a precipice one 
hundred and fifty feet in height, to escape from his infu- 
riated pursuers ; Colonel Swearingen's entrance into the 
fort, in spite of the savages, and the melancholy murder 
of Francis Duke, under the eyes of his father-in-law Colo- 
nel Shepherd, who could do nothing to prevent it, were 
among the incidents of this remarkable siege ; one which 
was unparalleled in the history of Indian warfare, and 
the result of which struck dismay into the hearts of their 
enemies. 



188 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 



CHAPTER XYI. 



The American Revolution was progressing. The 
capitulation at Saratoga had fallen like a thunderbolt on 
the ears of the monarchs and people of Europe. What 
triumphs had the English to offer against this masterpiece 
of the military skill of the Americans — none but the 
taking of Philadelphia, and tliat was not accompanied by 
the important consequences that followed Burgoyne's 
defeat? Franklin, the emissary of Congress, had been 
received by the people of France with a degree of enthu- 
siasm that had never before or since been manifested on 
the arrival of an ambassador. Yet he was not the ac- 
credited agent of a government w^hich was recognized by 
the crowned heads of Europe; it was one de facto — yet 
not de jure. The time, however, was rapidly approach- 
ing when the treaty of 1763 was to be no longer binding 
on either England or France ; for the Duke dc Choiseul, 
the old and inveterate foe of the former power, had the 
satisfaction of negotiating with Franklin the terms of the 
treaty of 1778, a treaty of alliance and commerce between 
the United States and France, one of the first nations of 
Europe. 

What influence was this event to have on the fortunes 
and circumstances of the people of the West ? England 
had an uncertain hold of her fortresses on the Lakes and 
the Mississippi. Along the latter she was hemmed in by 
the Spaniards, who occupied the west shore of that river, 
and to the east she had armed invaders, who were medi- 
tating a descent on her strongholds at Yincennes, Kas- 
kaskia, and Detroit. Her policy, therefore, was to culti- 
vate the friendly feelings of the French, many of whom 
had, from association and the early reminiscences of 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 180 

youth, continued even after the change of government, 
to abide in the homes of their ancestors. But England 
got no assistance from that quarter; the French had 
heard of the preliminaries of the treaty of '78, so that 
when Clark arrived, the English commanders at those 
forts, instead of relying on them as friends, found in them 
secret enemies. Had De Rocheblave or Hamilton known 
that they could rely on the French at Kaskaskia, or Yin- 
cennes, Clark, with his four companies of undisciplined 
troops, being raw recruits just raised in the neighborhood 
of Holston and Pittsburgh, would not have so easily re- 
duced Fort Gage * or Fort Sackville.f It is doubtful 
whether De Eocheblave or Hamilton would have been 
sent in chains to Williamsburgh to grace the triumph of 
the conqueror. J 

George Rogers Clark was born in the county of Albe- 
marle, in the State of Virginia, in September, 1743. He 
had visited Kentucky in the year 1775, and had held a 
commission either as captain or major in Dunmore's cam- 
paign. Like many other military chieftains who distin- 
guished themselves in the stormy period of the Revolu- 
tion, he united with his mild and gentle manners and 
courteous demeanor, the noble daring of the soldier, and 
the valor and courage of the warrior. He was peculiarly 
well qualified for the arduous duties with which he was 
intrusted. Of an adventurous spirit, and full of enter- 
prise, he turned toward the West in the hope that its wild 
domains would aflbrd a suitable field for his military 
skill. Clark was a good judge of human nature; he had 
been brought up in those trying times when men were 
schooled in adversity as well as prosperity, and from his 



* Fort Gage at Kaskaskia. f Fort Sackville at Vincennes. 

$ Washington disapproved of Clark's treatment of Hamilton. 



190 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

earliest years he had shown a predilection to wander in 
the woods and in the vicinity of forts and camps, where 
danger might be apprehended. He was thus the fittest 
person to intrust with the execution of a project to per- 
form which required a combination of qualities rarely 
possessed by any one man. 

At the period when Clark visited the temtory west of 
the Blue Ridge, the few settlers who were in the country 
were in a state of uneasiness, arising out of the uncer- 
tainty of the tenure by which they held their property. 
Henderson had wished to establish a sort of proprietary 
government, whereby the tenants would hold under him ; 
but these were dissatisfied, as they heard Virginia disputed 
Henderson's right to concede the lands, and that it was 
likely they formed part of those purchased for the King 
in 1768, by Sir William Johnson at the treaty with the 
Iroquois at Fort Stanwix. In order to quiet the minds 
of the settlers, and to remove all doubts on the subject, 
the people assembled at Ilarrodstown on the 5th June, 
1776, at which George Rogers Clark and Gabriel John 
Jones were chosen members of the Assembly of Virginia. 
At that time there was no county established, but it must 
have evidently entered into the vicAvs of these settlers, to 
force the matter, by the election of delegates, on the con- 
sideration of the General Assembly. Clark and Jones, 
after having encountered much hardship on their journey, 
reached the county of Bottetourt in Virginia, where they 
first heard that the Legislature had adjourned. Jones 
returned to tlie settlement on Holston, and left Clark to 
attend to the Kentucky business. 

Clark immediately repaired to Governor Henry and 
represented the object of his visit. The Governor received 
him very cordially, and gave him a letter to the Clerk of 
the Executive Council of the State. Clark repaired to 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 191 

the capitol and made application to the Council for five 
hundred pounds of powder for the use of the garrisons in 
the West. This was peremptorily refused, the Council 
assigning for the reason that the place where it was to be 
used, was without the limits of the government, but that 
they would have no objection to lend Clark the powder 
on his personal undertaking to become responsible for it, 
and to bear the expenses of its transportation to the forts 
on the Ohio. This Clark found was impossible, so he 
urged every argument why the Government should send 
the powder to Pittsburgh by a military escort, but all was 
unavailing ; the Council thought they had been liberal 
enough to grant the loan of the powder, without under- 
taking the responsibility of incurring expenses for its 
transportation, without the sanction of the Legislature. 
They sent Clark the order for the powder, which he indig- 
nantly returned in a letter, informing them that it was 
impossible for him to transport military stores through the 
forest, and adding, that he was mortified to find that 
Kentucky must look elsewdiere for assistance, and that a 
" country which was not worth defending, was not worth 
claiming." * This letter had the desired effect, for Clark 
was gratified to find that an order was issued for the 
transportation of the powder to Pittsburgh. 

Clark was at Williamsburgh in the fall of that year, 
(1776) when he presented the petition of the Kentuckians 
to the Legislature, and had the gratification, before he 
left, of obtaining the erection of a county by the name of 
Kentucky, to form part of the old dominion. There were 
also three other new counties formed in that session in the 
District of West Augusta, by the names of Ohio, Yough- 
iogheny and Monongahela.* 

* Butler's Kentucky, page 41. f See vol. 2 American Pioneer, page 303. 



192 HISTOKY OF THE VALLEY 

Of Course Clark and Jones did not take tlieir seats in 
the Assembly, but they bad the satisfaction to know that 
through their exertions, the vexed question of land titles 
would shortly be settled, and that that part of the West 
w^here they resided would be legally represented in the 
next session. 

Finding that the powder had been sent to Pittsburgh, 
Clark and Jones took that route on their way homeward, 
and on their arrival there, found several detached parties 
of Indians w^atching their movements, and lurking about 
the vicinity. So they adopted the resolution of removing 
the pow^der to a place where it would be more convenient 
for them. They brought it to a spot near to w^here 
Marietta now stands, w^here they buried it in the earth, 
and after meeting with a variety of adventures and assaults 
from the Indians, finally obtained a convoy to escort it to 
Harrodstown. 

Notwithstanding the dangers of a life in the forest, at 
that period in particular, settlements progressed and 
population was gradually pouring into the territory. 
John Todd and Eichard Galloway were the first members 
who were elected from Kentucky to serve in the General 
Assembly ; the Courts were constituted ; the militia or- 
ganized, and there w^as every indication of the early 
establishment of a settled government and a properly 
regulated society in the county. It must have been grati- 
fying to the settlers to see the elements of social order 
gradually supplanting that state of anarchy that had 
existed since their settlement in the West. 

Hitherto, the war between the Indians and the settlers 
had assumed no important aspect, there had been no 
regular engagement, (with the exception of the siege of 
Fort Henry), and there was apparently no concerted plan 
of action either on the one side or the other. The painted 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 193 

and tattooed savage, with his quiver slung over his shoul- 
der and his musket in his hand, would occasionally point 
the deadly arrow, or level his fire-arms to bring down his 
white foe ; but there was nothing like a regular combin- 
ation of forces, and it struck the penetrating mind of 
Clark, that the time was most opportune to strike the blow. 

To his acute perception, a plan suggested itself, which, 
if carried out successfully, would terminate the power of 
England and of her savage allies in the West. It was 
the reduction of the English Forts of Detroit, Yincennes 
and Kaskaskia. Honor be forever due to the mind which 
conceived a project fraught with such incalculable conse- 
quences to the future prosperity of republican America. 
In vain had the best blood of her sons been profusely shed 
on the glorious battle-fields of their country ; in vain had 
Washington spent a long career of usefulness in her ser- 
vice ; in vain had the declaration of her I^ational Inde- 
pendence been asserted within the time-honored walls of 
the old State House at Philadelphia, if her enemies, the 
English, were suffered to hold one foot of ground on 
American territory. From her strongholds on the shores 
of the Wabash and the Mississippi, went forth the man- 
dates to the savage tribes of this Continent, to bring in 
the scalps of the rebels : from thence issued the orders to 
spare neither age nor sex, not to heed the cries or the 
lamentations of the orphan and the widow, and it was 
but just, in the merciful dispensation of an overruling 
Providence, that retribution should wait on her crimes, 
and punishment follow guilt. Clark was the man to 
exact the one and execute the other, and he well performed 
his mission. 

He again repaired to the seat of government in Virgi- 
nia in October, 1777, and was engaged from the time of 
his arrival until the beginning of the following year in 

ir 



194 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

impressing on the minds of Governor Henry and the 
council, the necessity of adopting his plans for the sub- 
jugation of the English forts in the West. 

On the second of January, 1778, an order in council 
was made, conveying instructions to Clark to raise seven 
companies of soldiers, consisting of fifty men each, offi- 
cered in the usual manner, and armed most properly for the 
enterprise; and with this force ''^attach the British Post 
at Kaskaskiay For the transportation of the troops and 
provisions, etc., down the Ohio, he was to apply to the 
commanding officer at Fort Pitt for boats, and General 
Hand at that post, was to furnish him with powder and 
lead for the expedition. 

With these instructions, which Clark was enjoined to 
keep secret, and with another set, which he was at liberty 
to disclose, viz : to raise militia for the defense of Ken- 
tucky, he took his departure from Williamsburgh, highly 
elated with the success of his expedition. 

Major William B. Smith was sent to Holston to organ- 
ize a company, while Captains Bowman, Harrod and 
others, were directed to raise levies in other quarters. 
The point of rendezvous was at Corn Island, opposite 
Louisville, which Clark fortified. Here his little army, 
consisting of but four companies, was concentrated, these 
were under the command of Captains Harrod, Helen, 
Bowman, and Montgomery. They now knew for the 
first time, that the point of their destination was Kaskas- 
kia, and none murmured at the project, however difficult 
it appeared of completion. 

The gallant little party sailed down the Ohio, until 
they reached Fort Massacre, whence they proceeded by 
land, through the present state of Illinois, until they 
reached Kaskaskia. There have been several accounts 
given of the number of the population at that place, 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 195 

about this period, all differing in their statements, and 
we are left to conjecture what was the number of the 
people within the fort and village, but it may be set down 
at about eighty families,* and one hundred and fifty able- 
bodied men. Frenchmen and others, ready to do service 
at the call of duty. Against this force was Clark's small 
army to contend, consisting of about two hundred men, 
who had scarcely had time to become disciplined to the rules 
of the service, badly clothed, fed and accoutered, and har- 
rassed by the fatigue of a march through the forest of 
nearly one hundred and sixty miles in length. So miser- 
able was their appearance and condition that on an inter- 
view, w^iich was held after their arrival between the 
authorities of Kaskaskia and this military corps, that they 
could not distinguish the soldiers from the commander, 
nor the officers from the men. Their garments were 
ragged, and " tattered and torn," and their appearance 
was certainly not much calculated to command respect. 
On the afternoon of the 4:th of July, 1778, Clark's ad- 
vanced corps took possession of the ancient fort on the 
west side of the river, while the two other divisions 
crossed the river to take possession of the town. A few 
days before his arrival, he was told the men had been 
under arms, but all now was quiet, and no danger was 
apprehended. The surprise was effectual. Clark sent 
persons to notify the inhabitants, "that every man among 

* Butler's Kentucky, page 53, says it contained 250 houses, but he is 
evidently mistaken. In 1770, Kaskaskia contained only sixty-five res- 
ident families. See Pittraan's settlements on the Mississippi, published 
in London, 1770, page 43, and in 1801, the village contained about one 
hundred houses, and the inhabitants principally French. See " Topo- 
graphical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisi- 
ana." Boston, Charles Williams 1812, page 61. Mr. Butler is, however, 
generally correct, and the principal facts in the text are taken from his 
work, which is a valuable contribution to Western History. 



196 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

them, who should appear in the streets, would be shot 
down," and gave orders to his men to keep up during the 
night, such a continual noise and racket in the streets, as 
would alarm the inhabitants. The men entered into the 
spirit of the thing, they began whooping and hallooing, 
until the ears of these Frenchmen must have been dinned 
with the cries of the soldiers, and the clashing of their 
arms. Owing to the darkness of the night, the people of 
the town could not have had a correct knowledge of the 
number of men in the village, and their fears must have 
greatly exaggerated the complement of Clark's forces. 
Early on the morning of the 5th, the reveille was heard 
calling the soldiers to arms, and acting under Clark's 
orders, they took up their positions in the vicinity of the 
village. Soon after they left, there were seen men leaving 
their houses, and engaging in conversation with each 
other. The Colonel immediately arrested half a dozen 
of the principal inhabitants, and put them in chains. He 
adopted other measures of a rigorous character, but which 
were well-advised, when we consider his position ; he had 
Jieard^ there loere some Indians in the neighhorhood^ 
and he knew not to what extent the arts of treachery 
might lead his captured opponents. Some there are, who 
might cavil at his conduct, but Clark was of a humane 
and benevolent disposition, as he afterward showed to- 
ward these Frenchmen. His policy was eminently suc- 
cessful, and the ruse du guen^e succeeded beyond his 
most sanguine anticipations. At first severe, then relaxing 
in his severity, at first exercising arbitrary authority, then 
showing clemency to the people, he won them over to his 
side, and they became good citizens of the Republic. 

Thus Kaskaskia was taken, and De Rocheblave, the 
British commander, was sent in irons, at first to Rich- 
mond and afterward, as some authors say, to Williams- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 197 

burgh. . Clark's treatment of this officer might by some, 
be censured, but his remarks were particularly ofiensive 
to the American commander, indignantly applying the 
term ''''rebels'^ to the men, and disparaging their cause. 
He was neither the object of sympathy nor of pity. 

Soon after Cahokia (a small fort near Kaskaskia), fell 
into the hands of the Americans, without shedding a drop 
of blood, and this was followed by the accession of Fort 
Yincennes on the Wabash, the inhabitants of which 
readily espoused the cause of the Americans. This was 
brought about through the favorable intercession of the 
Eev. Mr. Gilbert, Roman Catholic curate of Kaskaskia, 
who at Clark's request, went to Vincennes, and urged the 
inhabitants to join the American standard. 

Thus were these three important British Posts sur- 
rendered to our authorities, without being obliged to 
resort to the dreadful ultimatum of war, and it was 
owing to the mature judgment, correct understanding, 
and acknowledged abilities of the gallant Colonel who 
commanded the expedition. Clark and his brave com- 
panions in arms, received the thanks of the Legislative 
Assembly of Virginia for "their extraordinary resolution 
and perseverance in so hazardous an enterprise, and for 
the important services thereby rendered their country." 

But a speck of w^ar was on the horizon. Clark was 
not to be permitted to reap so many laurels without moles- 
tation. Governor Hamilton of Detroit, having heard of 
the surrender of Yincennes, mustered a considerable 
army, and in December, 1779, appeared before the old 
fort and demanded its surrender. There were but Captain 
Helm and another soldier in it at the time, and that brave 
officer was not inclined to give it up without a struggle. 
Placing a cannon in a port-hole, commanding the entrance 
to the fort, he hailed Hamilton and asked him what were 



198 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

the terms, on which he expected him to capitulate. The 
Governor replied satisfactorily to Helm, and the garrison, 
consisting Of two men, marched out with all the honors 
of war, in the presence of the surrounding forces. This 
is a well established historical fact, and it must have been 
mortifying to the pride of the British commander to 
witness such conduct on the part of an American officer. 

Clark was soon trailing the footpaths of Hamilton 
toward this western fortress. He foresaw at once the 
danger in which he was placed, and rather than act on 
the defensive, he resolved to carry the war into the ene- 
my's country. In his own emphatic language, he said, 
"if I do not take him (Hamilton) he will take me." 

The road from Kaskaskia to Yincennes passed through 
almost one continued prairie for about two hundred miles, 
there being only scattered copses of wood, which had the 
appearance of small islands in a widely-extended bay. 
These natural meadows were covered with a tall grass, 
which greatly impeded travelers. On this road, at that 
period, there were hardly any settlers, and the traveler 
was obliged for several nights to lodge in the grass or 
copses of wood. As for food, unless they brought a sup- 
ply with them, they were dependent on the produce of 
the chase, and happy was it for them, if a stray elk or a 
buffalo should cross their path and become a prey to the 
hunter. It was through this road that Clark took up his 
line of march for Yincennes. 

With two companies of French troops, that had been 
organized, one in Cahokia, under the command of Cap- 
tain McCarty, and the other at Kaskaskia, under Captain 
Charleville. Clark, with his forces, consisting in all of 
only one hundred and seventy men, took his departure 
from Kaskaskia to have a trial at arms with Hamilton. 
A boat, manned by Captain John Rogers and forty-six 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 199 

men, two four pound cannons, four swivels and provi- 
sions, was sent down the Mississippi to meet Clark at 
some convenient point on the Wabash. On the Tth of 
February, 1779, they commenced their march, and on the 
evening of the 21st of the same month arrived in the 
neighborhood of Yincennes. 

About 8 o'clock that evening they gained the heights 
of the town. The garrison was soon completely sur- 
rounded, and the firing continued without intermission 
(except about fifteen minutes a little before day) until about 
9 o'clock the following morning. It was kept up by the 
whole of the troops (joined by a few of the young men 
of the town who got permission), except fifty men kept 
as a reserve.* Clark had made himself fully acquainted 
with the situation of the fort and town, and the parts 
relative to each. The cannon of the garrison was on the 
upper floor of strong blockhouses,! at each angle of the 
fort, eleven feet above the surface, and the ports so badly 
cut that many of our troops lay under the fire of them, 
within twenty or thirty yards of the walls. They did no 
damage, except to the buildings of the town, some of 
which they much shattered ; and their musketry, in the 
dark, employed against woodsmen covered by houses, 
palings, ditches, the banks of the river, etc., was but of 
little avail, and did no injury to them, except wounding 
a man or two. As they could not afibrd to lose men, 
great care was taken to preserve them sufiiciently covered, 
and to keep up a hot fire in order to intimidate the enemy, 
as well as to destroy them. The embrasures of their 
cannon were frequently shut— ^or the American riflemen, 

* Clark's Journal Western Annals, page 209. 

t Reynolds' " Pioneer History," says at page 60, that Fort Sackville 
was built by the British, iu 1769, and that it was a regular stockade fort 
with bastions. 



200 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

finding the tme direction of them^ would jpour in such 
volleys lohen they icere ojpened^ that the 'men could not 
stand to the guns ; seven or eight of them in a short 
time were cut down. The troops would frequently abuse 
the enemy, in order to aggravate them to open their ports 
and fire their cannon, that they might have the pleasure 
of cutting them down with their rifles, fifty of which 
perhaps would be leveled the moment the port flew open ; 
and if they had stood at the artillery, the greater part of 
them would have been destroyed in the course of the 
night, as the most of the Americans laid within thirty 
yards of the walls ; and in a few hours were covered 
equally with those within the walls, and much more 
experienced in that mode of fighting. 
****** 

Sometimes an irregular fire, as hot as possible, was 
kept up from difierent directions for a few minutes, and 
then only a continual scattering fire at the ports, as 
usual. 

Thus the attack continued until about 9 o'clock, on the 
morning of the 24th, when Clark having heard that two 
prisoners had been taken, with a considerable number of 
letters on their persons, and thinking that they might be 
expresses intended for him, decided on striking an efiect- 
ual blow to reduce the fort and compel the garrison to 
surrender. 

He at first opened negotiations with Hamilton, who 
wished for a truce of three days^ on such terms as he 
(Clark) proposed. This convinced the latter that his 
enemy was nearly exhausted, so he wrote him to say that 
he could not agree to any terms than Mr. Hamilton's 
surrendering himself and garrison prisoners at discretion. 

In the course of the afternoon of the 24:th, the articles 
of capitulation were signed and the garrison surrendered. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 201 

Like the British commander at Kaskaskia, Hamilton was 
sent in chains to Williamsburgh ; but this course being 
contrary to the articles of capitulation and the rules of 
war, Washington disapproved of it, and Hamilton was 
released. 

The coteraporaneous French w^riters of that period, 
who traveled in America immediately after the close of 
the Revolutionary War,* place Hamilton's numbers at 
one hundred and twenty well-disciplined troops, and 
three hundred Indian auxiliaries, while Clark had one 
hundred and fifty men only, with no other arms but 
carabines^ and destitute of artillery. Mazzei says, that 
before the attack Clark sent an estafette (a special mes- 
senger) to Williamsburgh to inform the Governor and 
Council of what was occurring, and his meditated attack 
on Yincennes; and that such was the extreme peril of 
his situation, that he finished his letter by begging his 
countrymen in the name of each man under his command 
to pardon their temerity, if it should happen that by the 
result of the attack on the fort, they should be deprived 
for the future of the services of so large a number of their 
fellow-citizens. 

Clark returned to Kaskaskia, where he remained for 
some time engaged in strengthening the garrisons, and 
fortifying the strongholds of the Americans on the banks 
of the Mississippi. 

Almost simultaneously with this memorable expedition 
to Yincennes, was the siege of Boouesborough, where 
that noble old pioneer, Daniel Boone, again distinguished 
himself. Colonel Byrd's expedition up the Licking, and 
the battle of the Blue Licks followed soon after ; but these 



» M. Mazzei, " Recherches Historiques," vol. 2, page 197. Mandrillon, 
Revolution de L'Amerique Septentrionale." — Paris: 1 vol., page 306. 



202 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

were only a continuation of that Indian warfare, the de- 
tails of which must yield before other matters of a more 
absorbing interest, which had an important bearing on 
the destinies of our countrymen in the West. In fact, the 
recapitulation of all these Indian battles, none of which, 
by their results, affected the political relations of the 
conquerors or conquered, followed by truces which almost 
as soon as they were entered into, were again broken, 
would only confuse the mind of the reader, and divert 
his attention from matters of far greater historical interest. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

It will be remembered that under the treaty of 1763, 
in consideration of the restoration of Havana and the 
greater part of the Island of Cuba, Spain ceded East and 
West Florida to England. In order to understand the 
difficulties which afterward arose between these two 
European powers, and subsequently between Spain and 
the United States, it will be necessary to know something 
of the geographical divisions and boundaries at that 
period. 

Previously to the treaty, a part of what was called 
West Florida, was included in Louisiana, but after the 
treaty, Louisiana w^as confined to the west shore of the 
Mississippi, including the city of New Orleans. West 
Florida extended between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, 
from the 30th degree of north latitude to 32 degrees 28 
minutes north, having the Mississippi for its western 
boundary, where it actually existed at the time of the 
treaty of 1783. East Florida occupied the peninsula, 
now appearing on the maps under the general name of 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 203 

Florida. South Carolina was the northern boundary of 
West Florida, also extending from the Atlantic to the 
Mississippi — North Carolina separating her from what 
was marked on the maps of that period as Virginia, its 
breadth also extending from the sea to the shores of the 
Mississippi. The Mississippi therefore was the western 
boundary of West Florida, North Carolina, South Caro- 
lina and Yirginia. Georgia is marked on the maps as 
lying between South Carolina and West Florida, but not 
as a geographical division, merely as an appendage of the 
former. Thus, at this period (1779), three great powers, 
England, Spain and the United States, were respectively 
in possession of territory along the shores of the Mis- 
sissippi.* 

In 1764 the English, not wishing to lose any time in 
taking possession of their territories in America, sent a 
regiment up the Mississippi to Natchez, where it was 
attacked by the Tonicas at the clifls, where Fort Adams 
stood, and was entirely defeated. In this battle Major 
Loftus was killed, and the clifls afterward bore his name. 

During the few years succeeding these events, and the 
breaking out of the American revolution, nothing of very 
great importance occurred, but the English were gradually 
settling about Natchez and in its vicinity, and were turn- 
ing their attention to the culture of cotton. 

When the people of these States had declared their in- 
dependence, Spain was hesitating as to the policy she 
should pursue. She feared that we would get possession 
of the Floridas, and resolved to take measures to forestall 
us in our endeavors to bring about that result. She had 
become the ally of France in the war which was then 



* Map of North America, annexed to " Essaies Historiques et Poli- 
tiques sur les Anglo-Americains," published in Brussels, 1781. 



204 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

waging, but she did not see, in her anxiety to get posses- 
sion of Gibraltar, Jamaica, Minorca, and the Floridas, 
that if we were successful, we also would lay claim to 
the latter territory as forming part of the conquered 
dominions. England was also justly alarmed at the 
situation of the Floridas, hemmed in by the revolutionists 
on the one hand, and by Spain on the other, so she 
strengthened her garrisons at Mobile, Pensacola, Baton 
Rouge and Natchez. 

While these two European powers were contending for 
sovereignty over the Floridas, the Americans, to whom 
they rightly belonged, were consummating those measures, 
the necessary consequence of which would be to place 
them in possession of the much coveted territory. 

At this period, Louisiana was governed by General 
Galvez, a Spanish officer of noble daring and great skill. 
He was one of the most efficient commanders that Spain 
ever had in America. He at once saw, that if Spain got 
possession of the Floridas before England was compelled 
to lose them, that it would serve the interests of his coun- 
try in a double point of view. If the Americans suc- 
ceeded, Spain, as the natural ally of France, could not 
have a difficulty with the United States respecting the 
Floridas, and at the same time she would, by their acqui- 
sition, before the war was brought to a close, aim a 
fatal blow at the maritime interests of England in the 
South -West. He resolved therefore, to attempt to acquire 
possession of the territory, and for this purpose suddenly 
appeared before Baton Rouge, with about tw^o thousand 
three hundred men, and several pieces of heavy ordnance. 
The fortification at that place, defended by about five 
hundred British troops, under the command of Lieutenant 
Colonel Dickson, was immediately invested, and the 
Spanish batteries constructed with ardor. But as the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 205 

works of the English were too defective to resist a siege, 
and the soldiers too much afflicted with sickness to repair 
them, Lieutenant Colonel Dickson, with a loss of a few 
killed and wounded, was obliged to surrender, by capitu- 
lation, on the 21st day of September, 1779. His troops 
were allowed to march out with the honors of war, when 
they submitted as prisoners. 

In this capitulation, the fortress at Natchez was in- 
cluded, though the troops at that post were permitted to 
pass to Pensacola. 

Elated with the success of his movements, and contem- 
plating other victories, Galvez, in the spring of 1780, 
sailed from New Orleans with a considerable force to 
attack the English at Mobile. In this he was again suc- 
cessful, and by the reduction of Pensacola the following 
year, the whole of the territory then denominated West 
Florida, was resigned to Spain. The articles of capitu- 
lation were signed on the 9th of May, 1781. 

While the Spaniards were aiming at the possession of 
West Florida, the English endeavored to divert their 
attention to another quarter. The commandant of 
Michilimackinac, in 1780, assembled about fifteen hun- 
dred Indians and one hundred and forty English, and 
attempted the reduction of St. Louis, the capital of Upper 
Louisiana. During the short time they were before that 
town, several of the inhabitants were killed and wounded. 
Some authors say that General Clark, who was then in 
Kaskaskia, appeared in the fort when it was attacked, 
and that the Indians fled ; while others assert that he 
offered his services, but that the Lieutenant Governor 
Leyba, who was then in command of Upper Louisiana, 
declined them. However that may be, Leyba's conduct 
on that occasion gave rise to much dissatisfaction, and 
the inhabitants of St. Louis went so far as to charge him 



206 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

Openly with treachery. They complained of his conduct 
to Galvez, who appointed Silvio Francisco Cartabona 
acting Governor during the winter, and in the following 
year Don Francisco Cruzat was re-appointed Lieutenant 
Governor. Leyba died shortly after in St. Louis, and 
some assert that his death was caused by poison. 

Thus about the same period that England lost her 
Colonies on the seaboard, she was also deprived of those 
she held on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Mississippi, and with the exception of the Canadas and 
the provinces adjacent to the banks of Newfoundland, 
her Colonial Empire, once so rich and powerful, was 
henceforward to become free and independent. 

At the peace of 1783, the line between England and 
the United States, was to be drawn '' along the middle 
of the river Mississippi, until it shall intersect the 
Northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of North 
Latitude," and England ceded East Florida, and guaran- 
teed West Florida to the Crown of Spain. 

The provisions of this Treaty opened a w^ide field of 
dispute between the United States and Spain, which con- 
tinued to disturb the peaceful relations between them for 
a period of twelve years. 

Spain contended, that the northern boundary of West 
Florida should extend to the Yazous, in North Latitude 
thirt^^-two degrees twenty-eight minutes, where certainly, 
so far as regarded possession, it actually existed at the 
time of the guarantee in 1783, while the United States 
contended, that the whole extent of territory on the East 
side of the Mississippi, to the thirty -first degree of North 
Latitude belonged to them, and certainly the words and 
literal construction of the Treaty of 1783, would strengthen 
such a pretension. 

But a matter of greater importance, and one which 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 207 

occupied the attention of our statesmen at that period, 
was the exdusive right which Spain claimed to the navi- 
gation of the Mississippi. The Treaty of 1763, allowed 
both Great Britain and Spain an equal participation of 
this right. The latter now contended, that by the con- 
quest of West Florida, all the territory south of thirty- 
two degrees twenty-eight minutes, belonging to her, and 
being in possession of Louisiana on the west side of the 
river, that the United States had no right to navigate a 
river, flowing exclusively within the limits of a neighbor- 
ing nation. 

This important question of international law, was likely 
to disturb the peaceable relations betwen the two powers, 
and it w^as only after a long series of negotiations, and 
finally by the cession of the country to our Government, 
that the question was settled. 

This obsolete law of nations, that the people living 
under one government, have no right to navigate the 
rivers lying within the territory of another, would soon 
have given way under the effects of a more enlightened 
civilization, and before the rapid strides at which popula- 
tion was increasing, and commerce progressing in the terri- 
tories of the Korth-west and South. The exclusive right of 
navigating rivers, which near their source, and for miles 
in length, flow between the territories of two diflerent 
nations, but which near their outlet flow entirely within 
the limits of one nation (such as the Mississippi and the 
St. Lawrence), is one which ought long since to have 
ceased to exist, and which is a restriction on commerce, 
which an independent people ought never to tolerate. 
For instance, the St. Lawrence is the great highway, 
which the Creator of the Universe has bestowed on the 
people of the West, to serve them as a channel of com- 
munication with the nations of Europe, and which they 



208 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

have a natural right to use for the transportation of their 
produce from Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and other 
States to the Ocean, but by the decrees of man, and the 
interpretation which he puts on the law of nations, a 
barrier is erected near to that part, where the river flows 
entirely within one territory, and the people of the other 
have not forsooth, the right to navigate its waters. 

As in the case of the Spanish claim to the exclusive 
navigation of the Mississippi, so will it be with that of 
the English to the St. Lawrence, these obstacles to com- 
merce will be finally removed, and people will look back 
with wonder to the period, when they happened to exist. 
Between the social state of the few settlers, who were 
inhabiting different localities in the West, at the outbreak 
of the Revolution, and that which existed near its close, 
there was a great and decided difierence. Owing to their 
indomitable energy and perseverance, and the brilliant 
successes in arms of their generals and soldiers, the Indian 
tribes had been vanquished in spirit, if not in numbers. 
Attacks on the log-houses of the settlers, now and then 
converted into block-houses and bastions, to resist the 
assaults of the savage foe, became less frequent. Under 
the military surveillance of well-furnished garrisons at 
Fort Pitt, Fort Laurens, Fort Henry, and Fort Sackville, 
and with Clark at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, watching the 
British and their auxiliaries in that quarter, the people 
along the shores of the Ohio were beginning to indulge 
in the blessings of peace, and of a properly constituted 
social organization, Numbers were flocking into the 
country from all quarters, and settlements gradually 
sprung up in the hitherto inaccessible forest. 

In 1780, the County of Kentucky was divided into the 
three Counties of Lincoln, Fayette, and Jefierson, the 
town of Louisville was established, and Lexington in the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 209 

preceding year had been founded by Colonel Patterson, 
an early pioneer, and one who had done good service on 
behalf of his country. The population at this period in 
Kentucky* must have exceeded six thousand souls. About 
this time, the people turned their attention to a more 
systematic military organization, the three counties had 
their regularly appointed battalions of militia, vt'hich were 
formed into a brigade, placed under the command of 
General George Rogers Clark. His commission as 
Brigadier-General, was dated the 22d January, 1781, 
and signed by Thomas Jefferson. They had their courts 
of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and officers were ap- 
pointed to fulfill the administrative duties of civil govern- 
ment. General Clark, shortly after his appointment as 
Brigadier- General took up his head -quarters at Fort Kel- 
son, in Louisville, from whence he watched closely, what 
was occurring among the Indian tribes in different sec- 
tions of the country. 

Occasionally in 1782, there would be attacks by the 
Indians on the whites. Laugheny was coming down the 
Ohio with one hundred and fifty men to settle in the 
West, when he met with an overwhelming number of 
Indians, who captured and slew the whole party, at a 
creek named after him, somewhere below the Great Mi- 
ami, and Captain Estill's defeat in a battle, which was 
fought between a party of Wyandots and the men under 
his command (each party numbering only twenty-five), 
was remarkable for deeds of bravery, characteristic of our 
countrymen. From this temporary mode of warfare pur- 
sued by the savages, and the disastrous result of a battle 
fought at the Blue Licks, in which a number of the 
pioneers lost their lives. General Clark resolved to raise a 

* It should be more properly stated " the West," for Kentucky was the 
name generally applied to all Western Virginia. 

18 



210 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

formidable armament and devastate the Indian settle- 
ments. For this pm-pose, he called a meeting of the 
military officers of his brigade at the Falls of Louisville, 
who placed themselves at the head of one thousand 
mounted riflemen, assembled at the appointed spot in 
September, 1782. They visited the Miami valley, but 
found no body of Indians under arms, they must have 
fled at the approach of this formidable military array, but 
Clark left unmistakable evidences of his march in the de- 
struction of their villages, and habitations, and having 
devastated their hunting-grounds and corn-fields, the 
expedition returned to the Ohio and was disbanded. 

This had a good eflect on the Shawnees and other 
tribes, for afterward, no large body of armed Indians 
crossed over the territory to the south of the Ohio. 

There were but few events of much local interest that 
transpired in Kentucky during the ensuing two or three 
years. The public mind was in a state of ferment, aris- 
ing out of the continued resistance of the Spanish author- 
ities, against the right of Americans to the free navigation 
of the Mississippi, and of the apparent indifference of 
Government to the interests of the people of the West ; 
but their attention was so repeatedly called away to the 
unprotected state of the frontiers and the threatened 
attack of hostile Indian tribes, that the spirit of disaffec- 
tion against Virginia, which was rapidly ripening into the 
most bitter hostility, gradually subsided under a sense of 
the more imminent danger with which they were menaced. 

In March, 1783, the District of Kentucky was consti- 
tuted, consisting of the three counties of Lincoln, Fayette 
and Jefferson, and the town of Danville was chosen as 
the place where the courts of superior civil jurisdiction 
were to hold their sessions. 

In the autumn of 1784, the people of Kentucky were 



OP THE MISSISSIPPI. 211 

threatened with an invasion of the Southern frontiers by 
a laro-e armed force of the Cherokees, and Colonel Lo^can 
assembled the first Convention which was ever held in 
the country w^est of the mountains, in order to provide 
measures for the public safety. The people now seemed 
more confident in their resources to repel invasion, whether 
it came from the North or the South, and as population 
was rapidly increasing, they were better able to cope with 
their relentless enemies. In the midst of all their troubles, 
they never lost sight of those unerring principles of jus- 
tice, which guide men in their relations toward each other, 
and young and defenselesss as they were, they acted in 
the spirit and with the conduct of freemen. When they 
found Virginia was inattentive to the wants and interests 
of the people, they resolved on erecting an independent 
State, and seeking admission into the confederacy. Large 
and comprehensive views of public policy, arising out of 
the complicated state of the relations between Spain and 
the Federal Union, promoted the accomplishment of a 
measure fraught with such incalculable advantages to 
Kentucky. In 1785, Kentucky alone contained about 
twelve thousand souls,* and these were guided by the 
sound judgment and enlightened opinions of such men 
as Wilkinson,! McDowell, Muter and others, all actuated 
by the love of freedom and the desire to promote the 
happiness of their fellow-men. It seemed to belong to 
the nature of Colonists in America, to assert their inde- 
pendence and inalienable right of self-government the 
moment the state and condition of the country in which 
they abided, justified them in adopting such measures. 

* Stoddard's Historical Sketches of Louisiana, page 82. 

t General Wilkinson, a member of the first Convention which met at 
Danville, and the reputed author of the Address to the Legislature of 
Virginia from that body, couched in terms of manly independence. 



212 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

They were determined to be as free as the air which they 
breathed, and to roam over the forests in which they had 
sought their homes, untrammeled by the decrees of a 
Legislature in which they were not represented, and which 
seemed to be regardless of their interests. The right of 
representation in the Legislative Assembly, and the Con- 
gress of their country to deliberate on those measures 
essential to their safety and happiness, was one which 
they would not forego, and before the close of the 
eighteenth century, Kentucky was numbered among the 
United States of America, Ibrming one of the stars which 
shone not with the dimmest light in that brilliant con- 
stellation, which had lately appeared in the Western 
Hemisphere. 

From the increasing depredations committed by the 
Indians, having, during a period of three years, killed 
several hundred persons, including women and children, 
beside taking horses and property to the amount of several 
thousand dollars. General Clark undertook an expedition 
down the Ohio and up the Wabash, to punish these insolent 
invaders. A thousand men assembled at the place of 
rendezvous in October, 1786, and having embarked on 
board of keel-boats, started for Yincennes, where they 
were to commence operations. Either from the want of 
a well -concerted plan of action between the General and 
his officers, or the delay which had taken place in the 
departure of the expedition, the circumstances of this 
campaign were exceedingly discouraging to both the 
officers and men. A spirit of insubordination appeared 
to prevail among the latter,* while the General himself 
seemed to have lost his wonted vigor and activity. The 



* Butler, page 152, says, that three hundred men deserted in a body 
when but two days' march from the Indian villages. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 213 

expedition turned out a failure, but the fortunate issue of 
Logan's campaign against the Shawnees, served to alle- 
viate, in some degree, a sense of the misfortunes which 
had awaited Clark. Logan's corps formed a detachment 
of Clark's army which was successful in burning one of 
the Shawnee towns, killing a few warriors, and bringing 
away a number of women and children as prisoners. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

On the 2d of January, 1781, the Legislature of Virginia 
made a cession to the United States of the territory be- 
longing to that State, north-west of the Ohio,* with the 
following reservations : — 1. That the French and Cana- 
dians, inhabitants and other settlers of the Kaskaskias, 
St. Vincent, and the neighboring villages, who had 
professed themselves citizens of Virginia, should have 
their possessions and titles confirmed to them. 2. That 
Colonel George Rogers Clark and the ofiicers and soldiers 
w^ho planned and executed the secret expedition by which 
the British posts w^ere reduced, should receive for that 
service a grant of land not exceeding one hundred and 
fifty thousand acres, on the north-west side of the Ohio: 
and, 3. That in case the quantity appropriated for the 
Virginia troops on the south-east of the Ohio, upon the 
waters of the Cumberland river, and Green and Tennessee 
rivers, prove insufficient for their legal bounties, the de- 

* A pamphlet was published in Philadelphia by R. Aitkin, in 1781, 
in which the right of Virginia to the territory west of the Alleghanies is 
examined. It was intended as a vindication of the grant from the Six 
United Nations of Indians to the proprietors of Indiana. This grant 
was comprised in the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. 



214: HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

ficiency be made up and laid off in good lands on the 
north-west side of the Ohio, between the rivers Scioto 
and Little Miami. 

This cession of the territory, with the reservations 
aforesaid, was accepted by Congress on the 13th Septem- 
ber, 1Y83. 

In the following year, peace was made between the 
Indians and the United States at Fort Mcintosh ; and by 
the treaty, the Indians gave np the country upon the 
Muskingum, Scioto, and Great and Little Miami rivers, 
in consideration, that no citizen of the United States 
should attempt to settle on a certain reserved tract belong- 
ing to the Wyandot and Delaware Nations, in order to 
insure future tranquillity. 

On the 20th May, 1785, Congress passed a law for 
surveying a number of townships of six miles square, to 
be designated by lines running due north and south, and 
others crossing these at right angles. The first north and 
south line was to begin on the river Ohio, at a point cor- 
responding with the southern boundary line of the State 
of Pennsylvania, extending thence to Lake Erie. Agree- 
ably to this, seven ranges of townships were laid out. 

The military tract comprised the lands granted by 
Congress, in the resolutions of the 16th and 18th of Sep- 
tember, 1776, and on the 12th August, 1780, to certain 
officers and soldiers of the late Continental army, and on 
the 22d September, 1780, to certain officers in the hospi- 
tal department. The greater part of these lands was 
situated on the Muskingum, and its branches, known 
then as Owl creek, Walhandink or White Woman's 
creek, the Mohekin, John's river, and Killbuck's creek, 
and the tract was surveyed under the direction of Rufus 
Putnam, Surveyor-General of the United States, agreeably 
to the ordinance of Congress of the 20th May, 1780, 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 215 

The Virginia reservation contained the tract which 
that State reserved to itself, for a compensation to the 
officers and soldiers in the Revolutionary War, when it 
ceded its claims to the Western territory to the United 
States, and is defined in the act of Congress passed on 
the 10th of August, 1790, and the amendment of the 
9th of June, 1Y91. 

On the 25th of January, 1Y86, Generals Putnam and 
Tupper, of the American army, inserted in the public 
prints an address to the officers and soldiers, who were by 
an act of Congress, entitled to a military grant of land in 
the territory north-west of the river Ohio ; and to others 
who might be induced to become settlers, proposing an 
association by the name of "The Ohio Company," to 
unite in a petition to Congress for a location of their lands. 
In consequence of which, a general meeting, composed 
of delegates from several counties in Massachusetts, was 
held in Boston, on the 1st of March, 1786, when the 
proposed association was formed. They voted to raise a 
fund in continental certificates to the amount of one million 
of dollars, in order to purchase lands in the Western ter- 
ritories of the United States; and five Directors, a Treas- 
urer, and a Secretary, were appointed to manage the 
business of the Association. 

Among the rules which were adopted for the govern- 
ment of the Association, and the orders prescribed to the 
men who were about proceeding with a surveying party 
to lay out the lands, there are some which denote the 
difficulties and danger that were anticipated on the route. 
At a meeting of the Directors of the Company, which 
was held in Boston, on the 23d of November, 1787, 
among others providing for the payment of the wages of 
the men, which was fixed at the rate of ^'•four dollars 
each per month until discharged," and the quantity of 



216 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

baggage they were to carry, consisting of ''their tools, 
and one ax, and one hoe to each man, and tJdrty pounds' 
weight to be earned in the Company's wagons," there 
was an order prescribing that each man should furnish 
himself with a "good small arm, bayonet, six flints, a 
powder-horn and pouch, priming-wire and brush, half a 
pound of powder, one pound of balls, and one pound of 
buckshot." The men so engaged were to be subject to 
the order of the Superintendent in any kind of business 
they should be employed in, as well for boat building and 
surveying, as for building houses, erecting defenses, 
clearing land and planting, or otherwise for promoting 
settlement; and "as there was a possibility of inter- 
ruption from enemies, they should also be subject to 
orders in military command during the time of their 
employment." Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode 
Island, Mr. Anselem Tupper, and Mr. John Matthews, 
from Massachusetts, and Colonel R. J. Meigs, from Con- 
necticut, were appointed the surveyors, under the super- 
intendence of General Rufus Putnam. Mr. Winthrop 
Sargent was Secretary to the Ohio Company. 

Application having been made to Congress in behalf 
of the Company, for the purchase of lands, by the Rev. 
Manasseh Cutler, and the Secretary of the Compan}^, a 
contract was executed and signed at New York, on the 
27th of November, 1787. They were to have 1,500,000 
acres for a million of dollars, in what were called final 
settlement certificates — one-half of the purchase money 
to be paid down, and a patent to be given on the payment 
of the other moiety. 

The tract of land thus purchased, was bounded east on 
the west boundary of the seventh range; southerly, on 
the Ohio river; westerly, on the west boundary of the 
seventeenth range ; and to extend north so far, that an 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 217 

east and west line for its north boundary should include, 
over and above the land to be paid for, the following 
tracts, namely: Two complete townships for the founda- 
tion of a university ; a section or mile square in each 
township or fractional township, (namely, Ko. 16), for 
the support of public schools within the same; section 
No. 29 for the support of religion, and sections Nos. 8. 
11, and 26, reserved for the future disposition of 
Congress. 

Provision was made in the contract for the Company's 
immediately entering on 750,000 acres, bounded as fol- 
lows, namely: East on the west boundary of the seventh 
range; southerly, on the Ohio; westerly, on the west 
boundary of the fifteenth range ; and extending northerly 
as abovementioned for quantity. 

On account of the rise of public securities, a number 
of the subscribers declined making their payments. This, 
with other circumstances, induced the Directors in March, 
1792, to petition Congress for a modification of their 
contract; and by an act entitled "an act authorizing the 
grant and conveyance of certain lands to the Ohio Com- 
pany of Associates," passed the 21st of April following, 
the President of the United States was authorized to 
issue letters patent for three several tracts, namely : First, 
for the 750,000 acres, bounded as before mentioned, "be- 
side the several lots and parcels of land in the said con- 
tract reserved and appropriated to particular purposes ; " 
secondly, a tract of 214,285 acres, to be paid for in army 
bounty-rights; and, thirdly, 100,000 acres, to be given 
to actual settlers, in lots of 100 acres each. The two last 
tracts to be laid out within the boundary of the 1,500,000 
originally contracted for. 

In pursuance of this act, the Directors of the Company 
paid the army land -warrants into the treasuiy, and the 
19 



218 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

President issued letters patent for the three tracts, bearing 
date the 10th of May, 1792. 

In November, 1787, arrangements were made as before- 
mentioned, for sending forward at the expense of the 
Company, surveyors, artificers, and common laborers, 
amounting to forty-six men, under the superintendence 
of General Rufus Putnam, for the purpose of commen- 
cing the survey, erecting places of defense, if found neces- 
sary, and providing houses or cabins for the reception of 
the first settlers. Part of this detachment collected at 
Danvers, in the State of Massachusetts, and began their 
march in the beginning of December. Another party 
assembled at Hartford, in Connecticut, on the 1st of Jan- 
uary, 1788. SumrilPs Ferry, on the Youghiogheny river, 
thirty miles above Pittsburgh, was the place where they 
were to build their boats. The winter was very severe, 
and they were not able to descend the river until the 1st 
of April. They arrived at Marietta on the 7th, cleared 
the ground, and pitched their camp on the east bank of 
the Muskingum, at its confluence with the Ohio. 

This is the commencement of the settlement, not only 
of Marietta and the Company's purchase, but of what 
now forms the State of Ohio. 

In the month of August, eight families had arrived, 
who inhabited the temporary buildings erected for their 
accommodation, and toward autumn more arrived, so 
that at the beginning of June, 1790, there were twenty 
families living there. 

There was, before this time, a garrison of soldiers on 
the west bank of the Muskingum, but there were no 
inhabitants in the State of Ohio, except Indians, a few 
straggling settlers, and trespassers on public lands. 

In the months of May and June, Governor St. Clair, 
Judges Parson and Varnum arrived and entered upon 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 219 

the duties of their respective offices. Two families also 
arrived within this period with a number of men, for the 
purpose of preparing for the removal of their families. 

In September the first Court of Quarter Sessions and 
Common Pleas was held, and this had a direct tendency 
to establish a better system of social organization among 
the people. 

In December, 1788, the agents of the Company resolved 
that one hundred acres out of each right should be appro- 
priated for the purpose of establishing settlements in 
different parts of the purchase; to be granted in 100 acre 
lots to such persons as should erect blockhouses, etc., and 
make certain improvements. Under these regulations, by 
the 30th of October, 1789, when about ninety families 
had arrived, nine distinct associations, amounting to two 
hundred and fifty settlers, had been formed, and by De- 
cember, 1790, settlements had commenced, or improve- 
ments been made, in all but one. That is to say, two 
settlements at Bellepre, one at Newbury, and one at 
"Wolf creek. 

It was about this period (for the precise date is not 
known), that Losantiville or Losantiburgh,* the spot on or 
near which Cincinnati was first established, is mentioned 
in the early records. Mr. John McCaddonf would date 
its settlement somewhere in the neighborhood of 1780, 
" ha\dng helped to build the first house ever built on 
that ground ; Colonel Patterson, on the 24:th of December 
1788, having formed a station and laid off a town oppo- 
site Licking," and Mr. William McMillan would fix the 
date on the 28th of December, 1788. 

Thus we are left in a state of doubt and uncertainty, 



* American Pioneer, vol. 2, page 400. 

+ Idem, vol. 1, page 377. Western Annals, page 308. 



220 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

as to a very important fact in the history of the com- 
mercial metropolis of Ohio, but like many other inci- 
dents of Western History, a great deal must be left to 
conjecture, when we are at a loss to arrive at the truth. 
K we may judge from the statements of writers, who 
traveled on the Ohio, almost immediately after its 
settlement, it was commenced in 1789, but in our opinion, 
the dates given by Col. Patterson and Mr. McMillan, 
would approximate nearer to the truth. 

In the year 1790, a settlement commenced at the Forks 
of Duck creek, one at the mouth of Meigs' creek, thirty 
miles up the Muskingum ; one at Big-bottom, ten miles 
up that river, and one at Amberson's bottom, about forty 
miles down the Ohio. 

The 100,000 acres granted by Congress in 1792 for do- 
nation purposes, prevented the Company from making 
any sacrifice of land, and also in some measure, it may be 
presumed, served as an inducement to persons to remain 
in the settlement and others to come into it. However, 
in July 1793, when the Directors of the Company made 
an assignment of donation lands to the actual settlers, 
there were found but two hundred and thirty males of 
eighteen years old and upward, within the Company's 
purchase, except the French people,* and a few others 
at Gallipolis. 

Soon after the Ohio Company had made this purchase 
Colonel John C. Symmes entered into a contract with 



* About this time, the French were turning their attention to the settle- 
ment of the Scioto. In the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, 
there is a collection of pamplilets in the French language, published 
■with a view to make known the agricultural resources of that part of the 
valley, and to induce settlers to emigrate. They contain no references 
to the actual settlements at that period, nor any reliable historical data. 
The statements in the text relating to the establishment of Ohio, are 
taken from Harris's Journal. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 221 

Government for a tract of land, supposed to contain about 
one million of acres, within the following limits, begin- 
ning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, and thence 
running up the Ohio to the mouth of the Little Miami 
river, thence up the main stream of the Little Miami to 
the place, where a due west line, to be continued from 
the western termination of the northern boundary line 
of the grant made to the Ohio Company shall intersect 
the said Little Miami river, thence due west, continuing 
the said western line to the Great Miami river; thence 
down the Great Miami, to the place of beginning. 

Col. Symmes wdth a few settlers, made a settlement on 
this tract in the Autumn of 1789. The settlers were 
chiefly from New Jersey, and were greatly embarrassed 
from depredations by the Indians. There was a settle- 
ment called the Connecticut reservation, and another the 
Virginia reservation. The former w^as situated on the 
north-east corner of the State, bounded East by the 
Pennsylvania line, on the north by Lake Erie, and ex- 
tending westward as far as Sandusky Lake, and the latter 
was situated between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers. 

In 1706, the town of Chillicothe was established, which 
was the seat of government until 1809, when it was re- 
moved to Zanesville, on the Muskingum. The seat of 
government did not appear to be fixed and perma- 
nent in one place for any length of time. 

On the 13th of April, 1802, Congress authorized the 
people to form a Constitution and State Government, and 
Ohio was shortly afterward admitted into the Union, upon 
the same footing with the original States. 

According to the census of 1803, Ohio included fifteen 
thousand three hundred and fourteen inhabitants (white 
males of twenty-one years and upward) of whom, there 
were seventeen hundred in Hamilton county, giving her 



222 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

the right to two Senators for the State Legislature and 
three Representatives. The whole number of Senators 
were fifteen, and thirty Members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Ross county then claimed the greatest num- 
ber of inhabitants, having then nineteen hundred and 
eighty-two, Franklin the least, having only two hundred 
and forty.* 

The first minister who settled in Ohio, was the Rev. 
Daniel Story, who arrived in March 1789, in the capacity 
of preacher to the Ohio Company. A church was organ- 
ized in 1797, and gave him a call to settle, which he 
accepted ; but not being able to be ordained, through the 
want of regular clergymen west of the Alleghanies, the 
church and society appointed the Rev. Dr. Cutler of 
Hamilton, in Massachusetts, to unite with Mr. Story in 
convening a council tliere for that purpose. This was 
accordingly done, and he was ordained on the 15th of 
August, 1798. 

It will now be necessary to revert to an antecedent 
period in the history of this Yalley, which was replete 
with events of absorbing interest, all having a direct influ- 
ence on the prosperity and welfare of its inhabitants and 
on their future relations, as citizens of the Republic. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

We have already given a statement of the pretensions 
of Spain and the United States to the territory lying East 
of the Mississippi, and of the rights which each nation 
claimed, the one to the exclusive, and the other to the 
free use of the waters of the Mississippi to the ocean. 
The question, beside involving matters of a national im- 

* Original Tables of the Census of 1803. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 223 

portance, was one of very great moment as affecting the 
relations of the people of Kentucky, as a constituent part 
of the Federal Union. It was only on the 4th of Febru- 
ary, 1791, that she became an independent State, but as 
a portion of Yirginia, she had long before that period, had 
a voice in the Legislative councils of her own State, and 
represented the wants and interests of her people in the 
Congress of the nation. Yet the seat of government of 
Yirginia was situated at a distance of six hundred miles 
from the frontier, and such was the difficulty of commu- 
nicating with the authorities, and attending to her inter- 
ests in the State Legislature, that the people desired a 
change in their Federal relations, and to establish a State 
Government for themselves. At this period (1788), Ken- 
tucky had a large and increasing population, amounting 
probably, to fifteen or eighteen thousand, steadily engaged 
in agricultural pursuits, and having a surplus product, 
which she was unable to dispose of, having no market, 
to which she could bring her commodities. The con- 
tinued resistance of the Spanish authorities to the free use 
of the waters of the Mississippi was viewed by them, as 
an act, so greatly affecting their agricultural and com- 
mercial interests, that they resolved to use the most 
strenuous exertions to have these restrictions removed. 
This state of things engendered quite a bitter state of 
feeling in the territory, and various were the expedients 
which were suggested to afford them relief. Congress 
and the Legislature of Yirginia appeared indifferent to 
their interests, and it was even said, that the French 
minister at Philadelphia had prevailed on the former to 
instruct its minister, not to insist on the free navigation 
of the Mississippi below latitude thirty-one degrees 
north. The people of Kentucky held a convention, in 
which their wrongs were asserted and a relief proposed 



224 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

for them, but the remedy ofiered (by addresses to Con- 
gress, the State Legislature, etc.), seemed to be too tardy 
in its eflects, to satisfy the j^eople. Ah*eady were they 
divided into parties, some were for declaring their inde- 
pendence, and entering into a commercial treaty with 
Spain, some for annexing Kentucky to Louisiana, and 
introducing the Spanish laws and government, while 
there were others, who wished to wage war with Spain 
and seize New Orleans. There were many (with pleasure 
be it said) who wished to maintain their connection with 
the States, and to threaten Spain with a war, while there 
were a few, who advocated the retrocession of Louisiana 
to France, the government of which was to be solicited to 
take the Western people under her protection. 

When it is considered what evils and privations our 
countrymen in the West endured, these extreme view3 
will not be considered extraordinary. Deprived of the 
only means which nature had given them, to transport 
their surplus produce to markets, where they might be 
able to dispose of it, they were deban-ed of every channel 
of trade, whereby they could enrich themselves and be 
able to assume their proper place, as a wealthy agricultural 
community, among the people of the Confederacy. They 
had heard that Congress had, at the instance of the 
delegates from Virginia, instructed Mr. Jay, then at 
Madrid, not to insist on the free use of the Mississippi, 
if that were a barrier to the effecting of a commercial 
treaty between the two nations, and they feared that 
there was a disposition on the part of Congress to sacri- 
fice their interests, in order to consult those of the Union, 
by effecting what was certainly very much to be desired, 
viz: a Treaty of Commerce with Spain. The United 
States were then in a crippled and almost prostrate con- 
dition ; just emerging from a glorious war, in which the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 225 

blood of her citizens was most freely shed in the sacred 
cause of liberty, but carrying with it the disasters, always 
following in the train of war, an empty treasury and 
without any international commercial relations (excepting 
with France and Holland), with the other countries of 
Europe ; it is no wonder, that at all hazards, even at the 
risk of neglecting the interests of the people of the West 
(the greater part then almost a wilderness), she should 
desire to enter into a treaty of commerce with Spain. 
Yet, the latter power, against all the entreaties of Mr. 
Jay, was inexorable in her refusal to concede to the 
Americans the free use of the waters of the Mississippi. 
Our Minister at Madrid, than whom no government ever 
had a more skillful diplomatist, or a more patriotic states- 
man, was averse to the proposition of Spain, respecting the 
exclusive navigation of that river, and his negotiations 
having failed with Gardoqui, he again referred the matter 
to Congress, soliciting counsel and assistance. It cannot 
be concealed, that the people of Kentucky and of the 
southern States generally, were prepossessed against Mr. 
Jay, on account of these Spanish negotiations, and they 
believed (in the winter of 1786 and 1787) that he had, 
of his own responsibility, offered Spain the exclusive 
use of the river for twenty-five or thirty years, but the 
truth is, that Mr. Jay, at the same time that he was 
friendly to western interests, was bound to obey the orders 
of Congress, which were quite explicit on the subject. 
"When the matter was discussed, there was a majority in 
favor of entering into a commercial treaty with Spain, 
even at the sacrifice of the navigation of the Mississippi. 
The southern members were opposed to the concession 
of the exclusive privilege to Spain, but the members of 
the northern and middle States were in favor of it. 
While Washington and the Congress of the States were 



226 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

giving their attention to this question, involving interests 
of such magnitude, the wily and artful intrigues of Span- 
ish diplomacy were at w^ork along the Mississippi, to 
spread disaffection among the Kentuckians, and to detach 
the territory from the Union. There is no doubt, that if 
pensions were not given, they were at least freely offered 
to several distinguished people in the West, to use their 
influence in bringing about a separation between Ken- 
tucky and Virginia, and commercial privileges were 
granted to certain persons to trade with New Orleans, 
which, at first confined to themselves, but afterward 
being transferable, opened up a temporary trade with that 
commercial emporium. The port of New Orleans was 
crowded with vessels and flat-boats from the Ohio, and 
there were many who realized wealth from the adventure. 
But still, the odious restrictions existed, and this tempo- 
rary innovation on the commercial policy of the Spaniards 
was owing solely to their desire to hold out a bait to the 
people of the West to separate from the Union, and to 
become subjects of the Spanish crown. France and Spain 
both aimed at the separation of western Virginia, and 
part of the Carolinas on the Mississippi, to connect them 
with Louisiana and the Floridas, and availed themselves 
of the discontented state of the Kentuckians to forward 
their pretensions. But France was not in league with 
Spain ; on the contrary, she desired to regain possession 
of Louisiana, and the treasonable conduct of her Minister, 
Genet, who wished to involve us in a war with Spain, 
happily met with a proper rebuke. This ofiicious and 
meddling Minister actually took measures to raise an 
army in the West, to conquer Louisiana and the Floridas, 
and was partly successful in prevailing on a few to lend 
themselves to his schemes.* Washington had, however, 
* It is said that General Clark received his commission as Major-Gen- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 227 

compelled him to march back to Europe, there to remain 
with the stigma affixed to his character of being the most 
unworthy envoy France ever had. 

Simultaneously with these intrigues, although not in 
conjunction with them, were the attempts of the English 
to tamper with the allegiance of the Kentuckians to the 
Federal Union. The notorious Conolly, Lord Dunmore's 
nephew, whose deeds have already been commemorated 
in another part of this w^ork, was sent as an emissary 
from Canada, to hold out the hope, that if they joined 
the English, an expedition would be fitted out to descend 
the Mississippi and attack the Spanish possessions. He 
promised them that New Orleans would be opened for 
the reception of their provisions and raw materials of 
every kind, and that commercial privileges of the most 
advantageous nature would be extended to the people 
west of the mountains. 

With all these lures and bright promises held out to 
them, in the midst of their trials and privations, and with 
a heavy agricultural stock lying on their hands, from the 
want of a market where they could dispose of it, what 
was the course which the majority of the noble and high- 
minded Kentuckians pursued ? 

Why, reclining under the folds of that flag which had 
been hoisted on the battle-fields of the West, where they 
had fought and conquered on behalf of their country, 
they indignantly spurned the ofiers of both the one and 
the other, and quietly sought admission into the republic 
as an independent State of the Union.* 

eral in the armies of France, and Corainander-in-Cliief of the revolution- 
ary forces on the Mississippi ; but this is doubted by some, 

* If any person should be inclined to cavil at the statements in the 
text, let him refer to the address of the citizens of the common^realth 
of Kentucky to the President and Congress, to be found in the American 
State Papers : vol. 20, page 929. 



228 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

In the meantime, the fears of Spain were excited by 
the threatened invasion of the English through the western 
territory, and the intrigues of the French, and while the 
United States issued orders to prevent the passage of 
British troops through her dominions, for the purpose of 
invading the territories of a foreign power with which she 
was at peace, she did not lose sight of the advantage it 
gave her to press upon Spain the necessity of effecting a 
treaty of commerce with her. 

This long-looked for object was at length attained, and 
by the treaty of October, 1795, the United States fixed its 
boundary between Virginia and West Florida on the 
Mississippi, in north latitude tbirty-one degrees, (taking 
in the rich country of the Yazous for which she had been 
contending), and obtained the free and unrestricted use 
of the navigation of the Mississippi. The permit for 
three years to deposit their eflects and merchandise in the 
port of New Orleans was also granted by the 4th article 
of the treaty, and thus the United States gained every- 
thing they had demanded and which Spain had withheld 
during a long course of negotiations. 

As has been already observed, the treaty was exacted 
from the fears of Spain, and no sooner were these allayed, 
than with that punic faith which always characterized her 
in her diplomacy, she opposed obstacles to the fulfillment 
of the treaty. 

In February, 1797, Andrew Ellicott, who had been 
named commissioner on behalf of the United States, 
arrived in Natchez, accompanied by a small guard of 
soldiers under the command of John McClary. It had 
been stipulated, that the Spanish forts and posts, to the 
north of the thirty-first degree, should be surrendered 
within six months after the ratification of the treaty, but 
from some cause or other, the surrender had been delayed 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 229 

for a little more than a year. It was also agreed that 
guards drawn from the troops of the respective nations 
should attend the commissioners, and shortly after the 
arrival of McClary's detachment, another followed under 
the command of Lieutenant Pope. 

The United States' authorities apprehended that Spain 
would evade as long as possible the execution of the 
treaty, and their apprehensions were not groundless. 
The Spanish Minister at Philadelphia, and several officials 
in Louisiana, were again intriguing with the Kentuckians 
to get them to join them, and emissaries were sent among 
them to sound their opinions, but the leading men were 
averse to the proposition, and nothing further was done. 

When Don Manuel Gayoso, the commissioner on the 
part of Spain, and Governor of Natchez, heard of Elli- 
cott's mission, he represented that his government was 
not ready to evacuate the posts, and dreaded the approxi- 
mation of the troops of both nations in the same place. 
So much were his fears excited, that when he heard of 
the intended arrival of Pope's detachment, he gave orders 
to detain him at Walnut hills, and not permit him to de- 
scend lower down the Mississippi. Ellicott counter- 
manded these orders, and Pope left to come to Natchez, 
but before his arrival, Gayoso gave his concurrence to the 
measure. 

That Spanish officer seconded the efforts of his govern- 
ment to delay the execution of the treaty as long as 
possible, and the course which he adopted necessarily led 
to an estrangement of good feelings between the Ameri- 
cans and the Spaniards. He availed himself of every 
possible pretext to postpone the evacuation of the forts 
and posts, urging at one moment, that the English 
meditated a descent on the Spanish possessions through 
the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and that it was 



230 HISTOKY OF THE VALLEY 

necessary to retain Walnut hills and Natchez as a cover to 
New Orleans, and at another, that as the treaty did not 
provide for the security of the landed property of the 
inhabitants, and did not state how the public buildings 
and fortifications were to be removed, that it became 
necessary to wait until the two governments settled these 
matters. 

EUicott was not to be thwarted by these ostensible 
motives to procure delay, but, naturally irritated at Gay- 
oso's conduct, he assumed a bolder attitude, and it is said, 
'insultingly displayed the flag of the United States in 
full view of the Spanish garrison." McClary also of- 
fended the Spanish governor, by enlisting his country- 
men into his corps and arresting deserters from the 
United States army, who had taken refuge in the Spanish 
dominions. 

There is no doubt that both Ellicott and McClary ex- 
ceeded their instructions by these high-handed steps, as 
they were told to adopt a conciliatory tone in their nego- 
tiations with the Spanish authorities. There were many 
Americans living in and around Natchez, and of course 
taking part with the United States Commissioner and 
McClary, they adopted such measures as they thought 
would hasten the object they had in view, namely, the 
surrender of the territory, and the establishment of an 
American government among them. They formed a 
council called the "Little Council," which approved of 
man}^ acts of opposition among the people to the Spanish 
authorities, and such was the excitement among them, 
and the dread of danger by Gayoso, that on the 10th of 
June, 1797, that officer and his family repaired to the 
fort for safety. 

There was a growing desire both among our officers 
and men, and even among the people, to provoke the 



OP THE MISSISSIPPI. 231 

Spaniards into the adoption of some measures which 
might necessitate retaliatory steps on their part, and 
matters were hastening to this crisis, when Ellicott, 
either fearful of the displeasure of his government, or 
thinking that he had exceeded his instructions, altered 
his course, and a truce was effected between the parties. 

About this time the Baron Carondelet was appointed 
Governor of the Province of Quito, and Gajoso was 
named his successor as Governor-general of Louisiana. 
Notwithstanding Natchez was within the limits of the 
boundaries assigned by the treaty to our government. 
Colonel Grandpre was named as Gayoso's successor, but 
he did not take possession of the office. 

In the month of December of the same year. Captain 
Guion arrived at Natchez with a considerable number of 
troops, and assumed the command of the small army 
assembled there; and in the early part of March, 1799, 
the treaty was complied with, and the American author- 
ities placed in possession of the disputed territory. What 
led to this peaceful result, was Guion 's disapproval of 
EUicott's proceedings, and the conviction which was gra- 
dually gaining ground among the Spaniards, that they 
had nothing to hope for from the disloyalty of the Ken- 
tuckians, or their disaffection toward the government. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SrMCLTAiTEOusLY with the events above-mentioned, 
which occurred in the South- Western part of the valley 
of the Mississippi, and which cover a space of nearly 
eighteen years, several matters of minor interest were 
occurring in the North -West, all more or less affecting the 



232 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

circumstances of the people who were abiding in that 
section of the country. 

The city of Louisville had been founded, and Fort 
Jejfferson was built on the Mississippi; the treaty of 
peace had been ratified between England and America, 
and people were emigrating in numbers beyond the moun- 
tains. The elements of social organization were becoming 
more settled, and men did not fear to embark their fortunes 
in the solitudes of the West. The treaty of Fort Stanwix 
had been entered into in 1784, and that of Fort Mcintosh 
in the month of January following. Under these treaties 
the United States claimed a large extent of territory west 
of the Alleghanies. 

In the midst of their warlike occupations, it may be 
recorded with pleasure, that at this period (July 1786) 
the ''Pittsburgh Gazette" was established, being the first 
press in the North-West, and in August, 1787, the Ken- 
tucky Gazette was issued in Lexington. The building 
of the first grist-mill to furnish the settlers with flour, pre- 
ceded the publication of a newspaper to supply them with 
literary food; for we read that Higby's grist-mill, near 
Lexington, was built before the fall of 1785, and that it 
was soon after followed by the erection of one on Foun- 
tain Blue, near Harrodsburgh.* 

It would be an unpardonable omission not to record the 
establishment of the first newspaper in the West; for 
when we look' back in the long vista of years and con- 
template the enterprising spirit of the pioneers of Pitts- 
burgh in issuing the first newspaper, and compare the 
circumstances under which it was undertaken w^ith those 
that attend similar projects at the present day, the human 
mind can hardly conceive the extraordinary change that 



•Butler, page. 206. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. - 233 

has taken place within so short a period in the state and 
condition of the people of the West. It seems to have 
been wrought by magic, some Ithuriel wand, that con- 
verted the barren wilderness into a fruitful garden, the 
hunter's shanty into the merchant's palace, and the pio- 
neer's settlement into a populous city. 

To what is all this owing, will the reader inquire ? It 
is attributable to the indomitable energy, persevering 
will, and enterprising spirit of his fellow-countrymen, 
who wandered beyond the mountains in search of happi- 
ness and a home, and whose descendants, partaking of 
their character and disposition have, under the happy 
influence of republican institutions, fostered the inherit- 
ance which was bequeathed to them by their fathers. 
May the son always prove worthy of such a sire, and 
may he devote his untiring energies to perpetuate those 
institutions under which his father prospered before him. 

In connection with the progress of the useful arts, may 
be mentioned the introduction of the honey-bee. Emi- 
grating from the east, and following in the train of civili- 
zation and improvement, it first made its appearance on 
the Mississippi, in the year 1792. 

A few years after, in May, 1801, that frightful scourge, 
the small-pox, began its ravages in the North-West, and 
so extensively did it rage in St. Louis, and the other 
French settlements in the Upper Mississippi, that even at 
the present day, in referring to that period, the old settlers 
distinguish it by the appellation of Laniiee de la Picote 
the year of the small-pox. 

About this period (1792) the French and Spaniards, in 
connection with a company formed in St. Louis, by a 
Scotchman of the name of Todd, made several trading- 
voyages up the Missouri, the object of which was to mo- 
nopolize the trade of that river. Mr. Charles Le Eaye 
20 



234: HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

has left a journal of his voyage, undertaken in 1801, 
which was published in Boston, in the year 1812. Mr. 
John Baptiste Trudeau, the "first schoolmaster" in St. 
Louis, has also furnished an account of his adventures 
on that river, which has been preserved in the Depart- 
ment of State at Washington. In 1802, James Pursley, 
probably the first American who crossed the plains be- 
tween the United States and New Mexico, left St. Louis 
on a hunting expedition to the sources of the Osage, and 
having wandered about the forest for three years, ap- 
proached the Mexican settlements at Santa Fe. They 
robbed him of everything, and having nothing but his 
gun left, they were near hanging him, because he at- 
tempted to make a little gun -powder to load it. In 1808, 
the Missouri Fur Company was formed, with a capital of 
^40,000, and in the following year Mr. Astor began that 
magnificent enterprise which terminated in 1812, and with 
which all are familiar. 

We shall now resume the narrative of the military ex- 
peditions in the North -West during the last ten years of 
the last century. 

In 1790, Governor St. Clair arrived at the Falls of the 
Ohio to take measures, in conjunction with General Har- 
mar, to form an expedition against the Indian towns on 
the Miami. On the 30th of September of that year, the 
troops under the command of General Harmar, consist- 
ing of about fifteen hundred regulars and militia, left 
Fort Washington, now the site of Cincinnati, to ac- 
complish the object they had in view. After seventeen 
days' march, the army reached the settlement, which the 
Indians had abandoned, after having set fire to the town 
and destroyed the cornfields and provisions, to prevent 
their falling into the hands of the enemy. 

It was during this expedition, that a melancholy disas- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 235 

ter befell a small detachment under tlie brave Colonel 
Hardin, of Kentuckian celebrity. The accounts difier so 
materially as to the number of troops and militia, that 
were sacrificed on this occasion, that it is impossible to 
estimate them correctly. It is nevertheless true, that 
either owing to the improper military organization, or un- 
skillful conduct in commanding the army, this small de- 
tachment was sent against an overwhelming number of 
Indians, and that it was entirely cut ofl', with the excep- 
tion of two officers and two privates, who escaped the 
general slaughter. A want of harmony prevailed among 
the field officers, and a feeling of jealousy existed between 
the regulars and the militia, both of which tended to re- 
tard the military operations, and to bring about that 
failure and defeat, which attended this unfortunate expe- 
dition. Ilarmar returned to Cincinnati, without efiecting 
the object he proposed to accomplish, and was afterward 
brought before a court of inquiry, but was acquitted. 

On the 23d of May, 1791, General Charles Scott, with 
General Wilkinson, formed another expedition, which was 
not more successful. 

Harmar's campaign, including his own unfortunate 
expedition, and two other unsuccessful excursions into 
the enemy's territory, had been attended with worse re- 
sults, than any that had been previously undertaken, and 
it became necessary for the government to adopt a decided 
plan of action to extirpate these Indian marauders and 
drive them away from their grounds. 

It w^as very unadvisable to place Governor St. Clair in 
command of the army. A veteran of the Revolution, he 
had done good service, when "fresh with youth," he 
carried arms in defense of his country, but he had now 
become old and infirm, and was totally incapacitated for 
such onerous duties. He was carried on his litter while the 



236 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

array was on the march, and his physical strength was so 
much exhausted that during the engagements which en- 
sued, he could hardly give the necessary military orders. 

About the 1st of October, 1791, General St. Clair left 
Fort Washington with about three thousand men. On 
the 4:th of November, at a village on a small tributary 
stream of the Wabash, the attack began on the militia ; 
the Indians completely routed them, and then pursuing 
and falling on the regulars, tomahawked nearly the Tia^f 
of the whole army. The onslaught was dreadful, the 
men, in their flight to escape from the fury of their enemy, 
threw away their arms, and left all their baggage, and 
seven pieces of artillery in the hands of the Indians. St. 
Clair only rallied his men within twenty-nine miles of 
the battle-ground, and then marched back with the rem- 
nant of his army to Fort Washington. 

It is painful to dwell on these scenes of Indian warfare, 
when our countrymen were so unsuccessful. That their 
successive defeats under Ilarmar and St. Clair were 
owing to the commission of errors, is beyond the possi- 
bility of doubt. These errors consisted in selecting 
inefficient officers, who were not suited to the emergency 
in which they were placed, and in detaching small bodies 
of men from the main army to cope with an enemy, at 
all times artful and treacherous, thereby sacrificing them 
and reducing the strength of the combined forces that 
should have been brought against them. 

It is pleasing, however, to turn from this sad relation 
to the glorious successes of our arms against the united 
forces of Canadians and Indians, led on through British 
intrigues, to carry devastation and bloodshed into our 
frontier posts. The defeat of Ilarmar and St. Clair must 
have been gratifying intelligence to our old enemies, who 
in defiance of the terms of the treaty of 1783, were en- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 237 

croaching on American territory by the erection of forts 
near the scenes of Indian warfare, and who were counsel- 
ing and advising with the Indian tribes, how to defeat 
their common enemy. The result of these repeated dis- 
asters had, however, the good effect of awakening the 
attention of Washington and some of the ablest military 
officers of the government, to a sense of the impending 
danger of their western possessions and to the necessity 
of pursuing a different line of action in this savage war- 
fare. Tlie old system of detaching scouting parties in 
considerable numbers was abandoned, and a facility of 
forming an order of battle to resist a sudden and unex- 
pected attack, drawing up in a line in the woods, and of 
securing the flanks against an unexpected assault, was 
resolved upon, as being essentially necessary to a successful 
prosecution of the war. The plan, which had also been 
so advantageously adopted in the campaigns preceding 
those of Harmar and St. Clair, that of erecting stockades 
or forts, as a place of refuge in case of defeat was like- 
wise adopted. With these salutary regulations, and with 
such a course of military tactics, every success might be 
anticipated from the result of the campaign. 

There had been no other defeat, with the exception of 
that of Major Adair, in November 1792, while engaged 
wdth a hundred Kentucky militia against a large number 
of Indians, a few miles north of Fort Washington, since 
the unfortunate campaigns above referred to, when the 
government resolved to use every exertion to gain the 
vantage ground over their savage enemy. 

Anthony Wayne, who had distinguished himself in 
the Revolutionary war, was placed, in 1792, in command 
of the army with Brigadier-Generals Posey, and Wilkinson. 

The President of the United States received informa- 
tion that the Indians would not enter iijto a treaty of 



HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

peace, and as an indication of their hostile attitude, had 
lately committed further atrocities on Laurel river, and on 
the Beech Fork of Salt creek. 

There are some persons who believe that the Ameri- 
cans had no right to wage this Indian war, and to drive 
away these savages from their hunting-grounds, but when 
we consider that they were aided and encouraged by their 
British allies, many of w^hom fought in their ranks and 
urged them on in their cruel and relentless assaults on 
Americans, there can be no feeling of sympathy shown 
for men who embarked in such an undertaking. In this 
Wayne's expedition in particular, the Canadians were 
found fighting hand to hand in the battalions of their 
enemy. From the Peace of 1783, to the war of 1812, 
there was no open demonstration of the hostility of the 
British Government against our Republic and its institu- 
tions, but a keen sense of recent defeat at the hands of 
American soldiers and the memory of their inglorious 
surrender at Yorktown, still made them our covert foes, 
now urging their Indian allies to attack the frontier settle- 
ments and murder and scalp the citizens, and then send- 
ing hordes of British subjects to enlist in the ranks of the 
enemy, and to give them the benefit of their superior 
skill and knowledge in military warfare. How, then, 
can it be said, that we ought not to have waged this 
Indian war ? Our ancestors crossed the mountains as 
agents acting under the decrees of an inscrutable Provi- 
dence to fulfill the destinies of the great human family ; 
they were impeded in their course by the armed forces 
of their combined foes, and happily for the success of the 
object they had to accomplish, they succeeded in vanquish- 
ing both the one and the other. After Wayne's campaign 
and until the war of 1812, the British did not enlist the 
savages to aid them in the invasion of American territory. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 239 

In October, 1793, General Wayne, at the head of one 
thousand mounted men, reached a spot beyond Fort Jef- 
ferson, at about eighty miles from the Ohio river, in the 
vicinity of the field of his operations. Here he suspended 
his march and built Fort Greenville. They remained at 
this place until the 28th July, 1794.* He reached Fort 
Recovery on the following day, which he had built during 
the winter, and given it that name, as it was erected on 
the same ground where St. Clair had been defeated. 
About this time he was joined by General Scott with 
sixteen hundred Kentucky militia, and the combined 
forces took up their line of march on the northern side of 
the Maumee, until they should reach the Indian settlements, 
near the confluence of the Riviere Auglaisef with that 
river. They proceeded on their journey without meeting 
with many incidents, but suffered much from the heat of 
the weather and their excessive thirst, which could only 
be quenched by the water of stagnant pools which they 
occasionally met. They were obliged to build a bridge 
over a swamp of seventy yards in length and five feet 
deep, and arrived at St. Mary's river on the 1st August, 
where they found the water bad, but the land rich and 
well timbered. On the 3d, an accident befell the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, by the falling of a tree, but it only 
temporarily incommoded him. Three days afterward 
they perceived the tracks of twenty Indians, and were told 
that they were within a short distance of one of their 
towns. On the 8th they encamped at the Grand Auglaise, 
where they remained for several days. It was here they 

* The account of Wayne's expedition is chiefly taken from the Daily 
Journal of his campaign. 1st American Pioneer, page 315 et soquentes. 
It is the most accurate account of this celebrated war. Butler and other 
authors have been consulted. 

+ Means •' Clay river,'* 



240 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

heard that the British had built a large fort about 
fifty miles from that place, and that the enemy were 
encamped about two miles above it on the river. On the 
16th August,* they resumed their march, and reached 
Fort Deposit, which they built to secure the heavy baggage 
of the troops. On the 20th they were in sight of a 
British garrison, at a distance of one hundred and fifty 
miles from Greenville, and about two hundred and thirty 
from the Ohio river. They continued their route down 
the margin of the Miami, until eleven o'clock in the 
forenoon, when their advanced guard was fired on by the 
enemy. This was the signal for the attack, and our 
men never displayed greater gallantry or devotion than 
the}^ did on this occasion ; they fought with the spirit of 
heroes, and the enemy gave way and were routed in all 
quarters. But the victory was not without loss on our 
side, there were thirty killed and one hundred wounded. 
Captain Campbell of the Dragoons, and Lieutenant 
Fowler of the 4th sub-legion, were among the former, 
and captains Prior, Slough, Campbell and Yan Rensaeller 
were among the latter. The loss of the enemy must have 
been very great, as they were pursued and slaughtered 
for nearly two miles. There were one thousand five 
hundred engaged in this action, one-third of whom were 
British subjects from Canada. 

Wayne's gallant army remained in possession of the 
field of battle, within half a mile of a British Fort.f 
After the defeat, the commanding ofiicer of the fort sent 
a message to General Wayne, informing him that he was 



* Butler says it was on the 20th, 

+ This fort was erected by Governor Simcoe, below the rapids of the 
Maumee, and on American territory. In a conference between the Indi- 
ans and Lord Dorchester at Quebec, in February, he had predicted this 
engagement, and told them "that a line must be drawn by the warriors. 



OB^ THE MISSISSIPPI. 241 

surprised to see an American array so far advanced in 
the country, and that had the assurance to encamp under 
the mouths of his Majesty's cannons, to which the brave 
American General answered, " that the affair of yesterday 
might well inform him, why this army was encamped in 
its present position, and had the flying savages taken 
shelter under the walls of the fort, his Majesty's cannons 
should not have protected them." 

Had Wayne had instructions to batter down that fort, 
he would have cheerfully done so, and it would have been 
but a slight act of retribution for the insolence of its 
commanding officer. 

Having burned and destroyed everything contiguous to 
the fort without opposition, and in defiance of " his 
Majesty's cannons," the victorious army returned to 
Camp Deposit, where they got their baggage, and having 
resumed their march, reached Fort Defiance on the 2Tth 
August. They remained here until the 13th of Septem- 
ber, when they resumed their march, and arrived in 
Greenville on the 2d of November, 1794. Here the 
Indians entered into a treaty, under which the United 
States gained a considerable accession of territory, and 
concluded a peace which was faithfully observed until 
the war of 1812. 

It is gratifying to peruse the record of Wayne's brilliant 
achievements ; they were partly the result of a more per- 
fect system of subordination among the soldiers and of 
the efficiency of the instructions received from the war 
department to alter the tactics of Indian warfare, but they 
were chiefly to be attributed to the gallantry of the Gen- 
eral, and the valor and courage displayed by every officer, 
subaltern, and private under his command. Wayne did 
not live long to enjoy the gratitude of his countrymen 
for the victory he had acheived ; he died near Erie, Penn- 
21 



242 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

sylvania, toward the end of the year 1796. Whether we 
regard his efforts in arms or in negotiations, he was one 
of the most successful Generals who engaged in military 
duties west of the Alleghanies. His services during the 
revolutionary war (although they do not fall within the 
scope of this work), must not be forgotten in the appre- 
ciation of his eminent services in the West. 

Here we conclude the narration of these Indian wars ; 
they necessarily form a very important part of the events 
which occurred in the West, and although it is sometimes 
painful to dwell on the scenes of misery and woe which 
followed in their train, they afford evidence of the disin- 
terestedness and devotion of the early pioneers, who 
cheerfully left their agricultm-al pursuits at the call of 
duty, to enlist themselves as soldiers in the camp. 

During the existence of this campaign, there was quite 
a ferment among the people in Pittsburgh and other parts 
of the West, arising out of the imposition of a duty on 
distilled spirits ; and the commotion became so violent, 
that it received the appellation of the " Whisky Insur- 
rection." However, but few overt acts of resistance to 
the authorities were committed, and the parties concerned 
in it soon regained their former good character as peacea- 
ble citizens, and faithful subjects of the commonwealth. 

In 1798, the temtory of Mississippi was established, 
and the Honorable Winthrop Sargeant was appointed 
Governor, and William Henry Harrison, whom Wayne 
had recommended in his dispatches after the battle, for 
his unflinching bravery and military skill, was appointed 
Secretary of the North-West, a post which he held until 
that territory named him as Representative in Congi-ess.* 



* Burnet, Ohio Historical Transactions, vol. l,page 69. Western An- 
nals, page 465. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 243 

This territory was constituted, as will be hereafter men- 
tioned, under the ordinance of 1787. 

It would be impossible to detail the rise and progress 
of every town in the West during this period, but it may 
here be mentioned, that about the commencement of the 
present century. Marietta, Warren, Youngstown, Cleve- 
land, Steubenville, Bellepre, Gallipolis, Manchester, Cin- 
cinnati, Chillicothe, Dayton and Franklinton in Ohio, are 
mentioned by cotemporaneous authors and travelers in 
the West as being "pleasant and flourishing towns, and 
rapidly increasing." Presq'uile, now Erie, was retarded 
in its progress by a fever which prevailed there for some 
time, in the latter part of the last century, but the place 
was then (1803) stated to be increasing in population and 
importance. Pittsburgh was then called the " key to the 
western territory," and was rapidly increasing in popula- 
tion, business, and prosperity ; there were four hundred 
houses there, several of them large and handsomely built 
of brick ; forty-nine were occupied as stores and shops ; 
the population numbered two thousand. Wheeling is 
described as " the most considerable place of embarkation 
to traders and emigrants, anywhere on the western 
waters," but its extent or population is not mentioned. 
Louisville, Lexington, Danville, Harrodsburg and many 
other places in Kentucky, are also mentioned ; all indi- 
cating a rapid degree of prosperity, and progressing in 
population and resources. 



244 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 



CHAPTER XXI. 

We have already incidentally mentioned the ordinance 
of 1787, in speaking of the settlement of Ohio, but its 
provisions having an important bearing on the establish- 
ment of other Western States, merit further mention. This 
ordinance authorized the constitution of a rather excep- 
tional form of government of the territory of the United 
States north-west of the river Ohio. Congress named 
the governor, whose commission was to continue in force 
for the term of three years, unless sooner revoked by that 
body. The qualifications for the appointment were, that 
he should be a resident of the district, and have a free- 
hold estate therein of one thousand acres of land while 
he held oflSce. Congress was also to have the nomination 
of the secretary, whose qualifications, requiring however 
a less amount of property, were similar to those of the 
governor. A court was constituted, to consist of three 
judges, exercising a common law jurisdiction, and invested, 
conjointly with the governor, with the right of adopting 
and publishing in the district such criminal and civil laws 
as might be necessary and best suited to the circumstan- 
ces of the district, to be in force until the organization 
of a General Assembly therein, unless disapproved of by 
Congress. 

Whenever there were five thousand free male inhabi- 
tants of full age in the district, they were entitled to 
choose one representative for each five hundred to a Gen- 
eral Assembly, not however to increase beyond twenty- 
five, imless with the concurrence of the legislature ; they 
were to serve for two years, and in case of death or 
vacancy, the governor was to issue his writ for the elec- 
tion of another in his stead. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 245 

The General Assembly or Legislature was to consist of 
the Governor, Legislative Council, and House of Repre- 
sentatives, the council to be composed of five members, 
who were to continue in ofiice for five years, unless sooner 
removed by Congress. Ten residents of the district were 
to be nominated by the representatives, out of which num- 
ber Congress was to appoint five to the office. The legisla- 
ture had authority to make laws with the assent of the 
governor. The latter was to have the power to convene, 
prorogue, and dissolve at his pleasure, and the council and 
the house had the right to send a delegate to Congress, who 
would be allowed to debate, but not to vote, during this 
temporary government. 

This ordinance partook, in many of its essential quali- 
fications, of the nature of those constitutions which were 
granted by England for the government of its distant 
colonies, with this diflerence, that England, in most in- 
stances, before that period, refused her Colonists the right 
of representation in the legislature — ^whereas Congress, 
more alive to the liberties of the people, conceded the 
right of electing members to represent them in the Gen- 
eral Assembly. There is no doubt that the constitution 
of the government, which was in existence for some time 
in the territory to the north-west of the Ohio, was predica- 
ted on the memorable opposition of Townshend, Fox, and 
Burke, against Lord Dartmouth's Bill, which was intro- 
duced in the Imperial Parliament in the year 1774, for 
the government of the transatlantic possessions of Eng- 
land in America. These ardent friends of universal 
liberty, and supporters in Parliament of the great Amer- 
ican cause against the mother country, opposed the bill 
because it wanted this essential ingredient, and expressed 
their unalterable determination to vindicate the rights of 
man to a full and equal representation in the legislature 



246 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

of his country. It differs, also, from these Colonial con- 
stitutions in expressing on the face of it the fundamental 
principles of civil and religious liberty, as the basis of all 
laws, constitutions, and government, and in providing 
for the security and happiness of the people. Still, there 
are points of resemblance which would strike the atten- 
tion of any person who is conversant with the forms of 
the constitutions of government granted by England to 
her Colonies, particularly in the nomination of a Governor 
and legislative council, who were not directly nominated 
by the people. 

Under the 5th article of this ordinance, it was enacted 
that there shall be formed in the said territory, not less 
than three, nor more than five States, fixing and establish- 
ing the boundaries whenever Virginia should alter her 
act of cession, and consent to the same ; and that when- 
ever any of the said States should have sixty thousand 
free inhabitants therein, such States should have the right 
to send delegates to Congress. This ordinance may well 
be considered the corner-stone, or charter of the liberties 
of the people of the North -West ; for under its provisions 
five of the most important States of the Union were ush- 
ered into political existence, namely, Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.* 

The General Assembly was convened in Cincinnati, 
on the 4tli February, 1799, and on the 16th September 
following was duly organized. In the interval the mem- 
bers of the legislative council had been elected and ap- 
pointed to ofi[ice. William Henry Harrison was the first 
delegate elected for Congress. He only remained there 
for one year, but during that time introduced several 



» 



* The Territory of Minnesota was established by a Bill which was passed 
and became a law on the 3d of March, 1849. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 247 

measures of great practical utility to the West, chiefly, 
one relating to the surveys of public lands, and author- 
izing their exposition for sale in small tracts, thus bene- 
fiting the poor and preventing the rich from monopolizing 
large extents of territory, which is always injurious to 
the interests of a newly-settled country. 

Shortly after the establishment of the government for 
the North-West territory, it was observed that it extended 
over too large a tract of country, that the laws were in- 
efficiently executed, and that there was not that salutary 
control over the actions of surveyors and other public 
officers, which would be insured if the government were 
brought more within the reach of the inhabitants of each 
section of the country. 

To remedy these evils, that part of the North-Western 
country known as Indiana, w^as constituted a Territorial 
Government by an act of Congress, passed the 7th day of 
May, 1800, and was bounded eastwardly by the following 
line of separation, namely: "All that part of the terri- 
tory of the United States north-west of the Ohio river, 
which lies westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, 
opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky river, and running 
thence to Fort Eecovery, and thence north until it shall 
intersect the territorial line between the United States and 
Canada, shall, for the purpose of a temporary government, 
constitute a separate territory, and be called the Indiana 
Territory. And Saint Yincennes, on the Wabash river, 
shall be the seat of the government." 

Only the eastern boundary is named in the act, and 
the Indian claim of a large portion of the territory was 
not then extinguished. The whole tract, agreeably to 
this line, was bounded south by the river Ohio, and north 
by the line between the United States and Canada, which 
made the extent of the territory at the time considerably 



248 HISTORY OP THE VALLEY 

greater than the State of Ohio. The organization of the 
government was based on the same princi^^les as that of 
the [N'orth-West ; there were a few deviations in the de- 
tails, but the general features of the system were pre- 
served. Mr. Harrison, the delegate of the North-West 
government in Congress, was appointed governor of the 
new territory. Arthur St. Clair continued to exercise 
the duties of governor of the territory of the North-West 
until the year 1801, when having resigned, he was again 
re-appointed to that office. 

At the period of the establishment of the Territorial 
Government of Indiana, beside St. Yincennes, which is 
described by cotemporaneous travelers, as being a hand- 
some town with a hundred houses, some of which were 
built of freestone, there was the village of Ouitan^ on 
the Wabash, where it is said, a silver mine had been dis- 
covered which it was thought would prove valuable. 
About forty miles below the village was the outlet of a 
river called ''Za Ver/nilUon Jaune'^ (yellow vermillion), 
on the banks of which was the residence of the much 
famed Indian Prophet. The town in which he lived was 
large for an Indian village, and received the name of the 
Prophet'' s Town. Jefferson ville and Clarksville are also 
mentioned, but their establishment was of much more re- 
cent date. Midway between these two villages, on the op- 
posite side of the river, was Louisville, which then con- 
tained only "one hundred and fifty houses, a printing, and 
a post-office." Fort Massac was also within the territorial 
circumscription. It was situated within forty-six miles of 
the mouth of the Wabash, on the Ohio, on a high com- 
manding bank, and garrisoned by a lieutenant's guard. 
Near the fort and along the banks of the river, there were 
a number of settlers, who had well-cultivated gardens and 
fields. During the Spanish difficulties, this fort was an im- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 249 

portant point, and was the rendezvous for the various mili- 
tary detachments that were sent down the Mississippi to the 
Floridas and Louisiana. Kaskaskia was then almost as 
large as Louisville, having more than one hundred houses, 
and the inhabitants principally French. Whether it fell 
within the limits of the Indiana Territory, properly so 
called, we cannot say, as the Illinois Territory, although 
not then organized into a separate government, was 
known under that name. 

We concluded our remarks about the difficulties with 
Spain in giving an account of the evacuation of the 
Spanish posts in the month of March, 1799, to the north 
of the thirty-first degree of north latitude. 

That European power was apprehensive of danger to her 
dominions in America, the moment our national indepen- 
dence was granted, and by a long series of intrigues and 
secret embassies in the west, she had been trying to 
weaken the Federal Government, and undermine her 
power on the west side of the Alleghanies. She feared 
the propagation of liberal sentiments in her Mexican and 
American settlements, and was farsighted enough to see, 
that two great powers could not long continue to hold 
supremacy over territory in the immediate neighborhood 
of each other. A spirit of rivalry would arise between 
the people of the two nations, and fearing the progressive 
character of the American race, she knew, that the 
sluggish inactivity of their European neighbors would 
make them succumb in the contest. Their ambition 
knew no bounds, and with men who had wandered through 
the passes of the mountains, encountering the deadly 
weapon of the savage at almost every step they took, re- 
ceding before no danger, and fearless of death itself, 
Spain had every reason to dread the neighborhood of 
such a people. Acting under these impulses, the In- 



250 HISTOEY OF THE VALLEY 

tendant of Louisiana prepared an elaborate report in 1787, 
in which he represented to the Spanish Court the people 
of the United States as exceedingly ambitious, as animated 
by the spirit of conquest, and as anxious to extend their 
empire to the shores of the Pacific. How marvelous 
the prophesy ! how true its fulfillment ! and were not the 
fact asserted by the statements of several writers, one 
would almost be inclined to doubtthe veracity of the author. 

The Spanish Intendant then suggested the pursuance 
of a course, which in his opinion it was incumbent on 
Spain to adopt. She sought the dismemberment of the 
Union, as the most efiectual means to weaken her enemy, 
and by pensions and other largesses bestowed on eminent 
political characters, to bring over the western people on her 
side. This was the groundwork of the policy, to which we 
have already referred, and which she pursued with such 
unswerving vigor for such a number of years. Despairing 
of the justice of her cause, she relied on the treachery of 
her opponents, and knowing her own weakness, she 
sought by their downfall to raise herself on the ruins. 

It she interdicted our commerce, it was to try and 
alienate the people of the Western States from the Union, 
and make them believe that their commercial interests 
w^ould be greatly promoted, by becoming Spanish subjects, 
and if unsuccessful in this, she would be preserving her 
own people from the evil effects of too close relations 
with a people bent on propagating the principles of civil 
and religious liberty in every nook and corner of the 
Western hemisphere. 

For these reasons, she declined to accede to the propo- 
sition of Americans, to form settlements in her domains, 
and when they wished to establish themselves in Louisi- 
ana, the application was at once rejected by Gardoqui 
and the authorities at New Orleans. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 251 

That the Spanish authorities never intended to execute 
the Treaty of 1795 in good faith, is a fact which does not 
admit of doubt. In a letter written by Governor Gayoso 
to a confidential friend in June, 1796, which w^as only 
known after the difiiculty about the fixing of the bounda- 
ries, he stated, that at the time the treaty w^as signed, it 
was expedient for Spain to cultivate friendly relations 
with the United States ; he assigned the reasons, which 
we have before stated, in our opinion, induced Spain to 
enter into that treaty, under which we gained all that we 
had long sought for in our negotiations with that power. 
He made use of other plausible pretexts, such as the 
probable dissolution of the Union, as a ground for delay 
in executing the treaty, and concluded, that nothing more 
would result from it but the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi. 

During the latter part of the period of these local 
transactions, Spain was embroiled in a European war. 
Bonaparte was in the hey-day of favor, his star had cul- 
minated almost to the top of the political zenith, when 
by the defeat of the Spanish fleet in a battle, which was 
fought ofi:' Cape St. Yincents, on the 14th of February, 
1797, by Sir John Jervis, afterward created Earl St. 
Yincents, and by the more memorable destruction of the 
French fleet, in Aboukir bay by Lord I^elson, he was 
only beginning to sustain those reverses w^hich made his 
fall almost as rapid as his rise. Keutral though we were, 
the Spanish vessels of war and privateers, were molest- 
ing our marine and destroying our commerce on the high 
seas. 

The Spaniards did not only trouble us on the ocean, 
they denied the right of deposit to our western merchants 
for their merchandise at New Orleans, notwithstanding 
that right had been solemnly granted by the treaty for 



252 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

three years after its execution. This suspension of com- 
mercial intercourse created a perfect ferment in the public 
mind, and the people of the west saw that there was no 
faith to be placed in the negotiations of that power with 
their Government. 

President Adams resolved on striking a blow at Spanish 
supremacy in America, which if successful, would entirely 
overthrow her government. This was nothing less than 
the acquisition of l^ew Orleans. He caused twelve regi- 
ments to be raised, which were added to the army in 1Y99, 
and when this was ejftected, dispatched three of the old 
regiments to a position, near the mouth of the Ohio, 
where they were to hold themselves in readiness and 
keep their boats in constant repair for service. These 
were to form a junction with the new levies, and the 
whole force was to seize on New Orleans, before any 
Spanish troops could arrive in the country. 

The United States had a just cause for war against 
Spain. She had infringed the terms of the Treaty of 
1795, she had rejected our Ministers, and her Navy had 
committed spoliations on our commerce, and if we had 
declared war, it was perfectly justifiable. 

But there was the certainty of a change in the ad- 
ministration of the Government of the United States, 
before these plans could be matured, and in the summer 
of 1800, the new levies were disbanded. 

In 1801, Mr. Jefferson reiterated these remonstrances 
to the Spanish Government and demanded redress. She 
gave us the right of deposit in New Orleans, but asserted 
that Louisiana no longer formed part of her dominions. 

On the 21st of March, 1801, she had retroceded that 
Colony to France, and on the 30th of April, 1803, Louisi- 
ana was purchased from Bonaparte by the United States. 

On the 20th of December of the same year. Lower 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 253 

Louisiana was delivered up to the American authorities, 
and on the 9th of March, 1804, Upper Louisiana was 
also transferred to them. William C. C. Claiborne, Esq. 
was appointed Governor and Intendant-General of Loui- 
siana, and Amos Stoddard, Esquire, was named Civil 
Commander of Upper Louisiana. 

Thus by the valor and courage of our soldiers, and the 
wisdom and patriotism of our statesmen, were we placed 
in possession of both sides of the Mississippi from its 
source to its mouth. It was a long and dreary campaign, 
one which enlisted the sympathies, the feelings, and 
aspirations of all true-hearted Americans, but it was one 
in which we triumphed, notwithstanding the arts and 
intrigues of our enemies, of their treachery at home 
and of their enmity abroad. The attainment of this 
object was, in effect, the consolidation of power in the 
hands of those to whom it rightly belonged on this Con- 
tinent, and the acquisition of Louisiana opened new 
channels of trade to our increasing commerce on the 
Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Military valor met 
with its reward, and sentiments of patriotism predomi- 
nated over the selfish motives of national aggrandize- 
ment. Spain lost her ascendency in America, and the 
United States wrenched the laurels which adorned her 
brow. 

On the 11th of January, 1805, Michigan was admitted 
to the benefits of self-government, under the provisions 
of the ordinance of 1787. 

History should be confined within its own particular 
province, it should narrate facts and nothing more, but 
when it is blended with romance, the latter assumes the 
authenticity of facts. In the records of western history, 
which detail so many instances of heroism on the part of 
the early pioneers, and all the trials and privations they 



254 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

underwent in seeking to reclaim the forest from the pos- 
session of its denizens, the wild savages of America, 
there is a tinge of romance, which colors all its pages 
and lends such charms to the picture. But let it not be 
believed, that that romance is the ofispring of the imagi- 
nation or the fruit of fancy, it is as inseparably interwoven 
with the narration of historical facts, as the actors them- 
selves are connected with the occurrences that are 
mentioned, or the times in which they lived. 

Nearly opposite to Bellepre, in the State of Ohio, there 
is an island of surpassing loveliness. It was at the 
period of which we write, covered to the margin of its 
banks with trees of beautiful foliage, which threw their 
shade over the clear and placid waters of the Ohio. On 
ascending the bank from the landing, a quarter of a mile 
below the eastern end, there was a large massive double 
gate, with square pilasters, made of beautiful granite, 
through which admission was gained to a gravel walk, 
shaded by trees, which extended for a distance of about 
one hundred and fifty paces to the mansion. On the left 
there was a meadow, on which the cattle belonging to the 
farm were grazing, while on the right, there was a shrub- 
bery, separated by a low hedge of brambly thickets, over 
which the pebbled walks might be seen with their ground 
plots, decorated with the choicest flowers of the season. 
The house was built of wood, two stories in height, and 
occupied a square of about fifty-four feet on each side, it 
was connected with two wings by a semicircular portico 
or corridor extending from each front corner. The 
garden was well stocked with every description of fruit, 
vegetables, and flowers, which the fine climate and rich 
soil produced. In the shrubbery on the right side of this 
magnificent mansion, there was a variety of evergreens 
and exotics, which had been brought thither to gratify 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 255 

the taste of its wealthy owner. In the midst of this 
rural paradise one might linger for hours together in its 
labyrinthian walks, reveling over the pleasm-es of the 
scenes around him.* 

The interior of the house corresponded with its elegant 
external appearance. In addition to the richly decorated 
panneling on the walls, and the magnificent furniture 
that was found in the mansion, there was also a large 
library of choice and well-assorted books, chemical appa- 
ratus and philosophical instruments,! which occupied one 
of the wings. The proprietor was a " fine scholar, well 
versed in the languages, and refined in taste and manners. 
So tenacious was his memory, that he could repeat the 
greater part of Homer's Iliad in the original Greek. With 
an ample fortune to supply every want, a beautiful and 
highly accomplished wife, and children just budding into 
boyhood, he seemed surrounded with everything which 
could make existence desirable and happy. The adjacent 
settlements of Bellepre and Marietta, although secluded in 
the wilderness, contained many men of cultivated minds 
and refined manners, with whom he held constant and fa- 
miliar intercourse ; so that he lacked none of the benefits 
of society, which his remote and insular situation would 
seem to indicate. Many were the cheerful and merry 
gatherings of the young people of these two towns beneath 
his hospitable roof, while the song and the dance echoed 
through the hall.'* J 

It was on a summer's evening in the year 1805, that a 
boat was seen approaching the island, the receding rays 
of the setting sun partly concealing from the view who 

* The author regrets that he cannot put his hand on the glowing de- 
scription of this beautiful island, by the celebrated Virginia orator, Mr 
Wirt, in the Richmond Trial of 1807. 

t See 1 American Pioneer, page 92. $ American Pioneer — Idem. 



256 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

were its occupants. Could fancy portray the dress and 
appearance of the traveler, it would habit him in a dark 
cloak, slouched hat, and a dagger slinging at his side ; 
but his bold and erect front, manly demeanor, and grace- 
ful manners, would conceal from the passing notice of the 
observer, the deep-laid schemes of the artful intriguer, 
and the foul plots of the wicked conspirator. He landed 
on the island, carrying with him the germs of that noxious 
plant, which was to bear such poisonous fruits in its 
season, and the odor of which was to be inhaled by its 
occupants, spreading misery and woe around them. 
The traveler held an interview with the owner of that 
terrestrial paradise — the serpent had entered, and had 
already enveloped its victim within its folds. The former 
was Aaron Burr of infamous celebrity, and the latter was 
Herman Blennerhasset of too unfortunate notoriety. 

Like his competitor in treachery and crime, that arch 
traitor, who would, during the revolution, have sold his 
birthright for a mess of pottage, Burr, raised almost to 
the pinnacle of fame, enjoying the honors and rewards of 
a grateful country, looking back to a well-spent life, un- 
sullied but by one foul blot, the death of a much lamented 
patriot, and a worthy and good man, he drank too deeply 
from the fountains of ambition, and became intoxicated 
with the draught. 

The time and the occasion were most opportune for the 
accomplishment of his purposes. The victory of Trafal- 
gar had been achieved, and the combined fleets of France 
and Spain had surrendered during the death-agony of the 
brave and valiant Nelson. The latter power humbled, 
and crouching before the supremacy of England on the 
high seas, found itself crippled in its resources, and almost 
bankrupt in its treasury. What a favorable moment for 
striking a blow at the Spanish possessions across the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 257 

Atlantic main ! Who so worthy of being the actors as 
myself ^r5^, and Wilkinson second?"* Burr meditated 
the severance of a great part of the Mexican possessions 
I'rom Spain, and relying too confidently on the spirit of 
disaffection, which he knew had existed in the West, 
arising from hope deferred in the matter of the free navi- 
gation of the Mississippi, thought that "a few more 
worthies " could be found there, who would strike a fra- 
tricidal blow at the integrity of the Union. When Mexico 
had been conquered and the West had revolted, in the 
midst of the chaos of conflicting elements that surrounded 
him, an empire or a republic was to be erected and Burr 
was to be placed at the head of it. Never were plans 
more maturely laid or more adroitly conceived — never was 
rebellion more foully hatched ; but the glass palace, which 
Burr had erected in his fairy vision, was doomed to fall 
to the ground with a crash, which involved all in its 
ruins, and the egg was broken before it went through the 
process of ovation. 

Burr was foiled in his plans, and his hopes were all 
disappointed. Even Wilkinson, on whom he seemed 
chiefly to rely, denounced the traitor, by sending a copy 
of Burr's letter to the President, and his hopes, arising 
out of the difficulties with Spain, were disappointed by the 
withdrawal of the Spanish troops on the west side of the 
Sabine, and the return of Wilkinson to New Orleans. 
He was arrested for treason against the United States, but 
the jury acquitted him — no overt act had been committed, 



* See American State Papers from page 471 to 506 of 20th vol. 
Burr's letter to Wilkinson, confided to Swartwout, wherein he says, " it 
will be a host of choice spirits — Wilkinson shall be second to Burr only — 
Wilkinson shall dictate the rank and promotion of his officers — Burr 
will proceed westward 1st August, never to return — with him go his 
daughter, the husband will follow in October, with a corps of worthies! " 
9-7 



258 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

and althougli his designs were laid bare by his conversa- 
tions at Pittsburgh, the letters of " Querist " in the 
Marietta Gazette, and Blennerhassett's statements to his 
friends, he escaped the penalty of conviction. 

But what desolation and misery the conspiracy brought 
down on the heads of all those who were concerned in it, 
and on none more than on Herman Blennerhassett and his 
family ! He had embarked the greater part of his fortune 
in the enterprise ; he had equipped boats and provided 
them with men and provisions ; his whole soul was 
wrapped up in the success of the undertaking. When 
Burr's plans were divulged, a warrant was issued for his 
arrest, but Blennerhassett had left the island, a fugitive 
from justice, and an exile from his home. When the 
officers arrived at his residence, they met with the stern 
rebuke of the wife, who, a few days after, taking her two 
little boys and the most valuable of her effects, rejoined 
her husband at Louisville. Nothing further was heard 
of him, but his house was destroyed by fire in 1812, and 
his gardens and shrubberies were converted into corn- 
fields. 

Half a century has elapsed, but the memory of his mis- 
fortunes has not been efiaced by the progress of time. 
As the traveler descends the Ohio, and passes the beauti- 
ful little town of BcUcpre, he casts a long and lingering 
look on the spot where once stood the mansion of Herman 
Blennerhassett, with his mind full of meUxnclioly reflections 
on the instability of human life, and the perversity of 
human nature. 

We should only havu half-performed our duty in giving 
a succint account of the leading events in the history of 
the Yalley of the Mississippi, did we omit to mention, 
that about this period (1803) the Commonwealth of Ken- 
tucky called to her councils the late lamented Henry 



OF THE lillSSISSIPPI. 259 

Clay; his long public services, his ardent and devoted 
patriotism, and his manly defense of republican institu- 
tions, when they were assailed by the spirit of faction or 
the rancor of political parties, have endeared him to the 
memory of all Americans ; but, as a Kentuckian and a 
citizen of the West, the inhabitants of the valley of the 
Mississippi take a just pride in the high position he 
occupied in the world's esteem. From his advent in 
public life to the close of his mortal career, neither Whig 
nor Democrat ever attempted to soil his fair fame, as a 
man of spotless integrity and unsullied honor, and even 
when in connection with the events that we have been 
just reciting, he stood up as the legal counsel of Aaron 
Burr to defend him on the charge of treason, no one 
doubted the sincerity of his conviction, at the time^ that 
Burr was innocent of the offense. Even at that early 
period in his legal career, he exacted a pledge from the 
traitor, which, in the language of a historian, was " as 
manfully required as it was treacherously and dishonor- 
ably given." Mr. Clay would not otherwise have 
defended Burr ; but the latter having solemnly declared 
" as a man of honor and a good citizen," that he was in 
no way " unfriendly to the laws, the government, or the 
interests of his countr}^," the former acted as his counsel 
and did him good service. 

The grave has closed over the mortal remains of the 
lamented Clay, but the memory of his services will reach 
beyond the tomb, and when, in after life, our children's 
children will ask, who were the patriots and statesmen 
of America, posterity will point to the bust of Henry 
Clay, enshrined among others in the Temple of Fame, 
and regard him as one of the greatest men America has 
produced. 



260 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Toward the end of the year 1805, the Indians were 
again beginning to assume a hostile attitude. Tecum- 
seh and the Prophet, to whom we have ah-eady referred, 
were exercising their influence to bring about a state of 
war between them and our government. The ostensible 
cause of the difficulty arose out of their opposition to cer- 
tain treaties that had been entered into, ceding large 
tracts of territory, without the concurrence of all the 
tribes. They contended that these cessions were null 
and demanded redress. Subsequently, the events before 
mentioned, relating to Burr's conspiracy, had occurred, and 
during the years 1806 and 1807, the public mind w^as 
engrossed with a sense of the danger they had escaped 
from by the discovery of the plot and the flight of the 
criminals. Sebastian, who had been convicted of the 
crime of receiving a pension from the Spanish govern- 
ment while occupying a high office in Kentucky, had 
enjoyed the confidence of all classes of the community, 
and his consent had also occupied a great share of public 
attention. In the midst of these disquietudes, Tecum- 
seh and the Prophet were quietly maturing their schemes 
for carrying on an offensive war against the Americans. 
In June 1808, they had proceeded to Tippecanoe, a tribu- 
tary of the upper Wabash, where being joined by the 
tribes, they fought that celebrated battle, an account of 
which is found in every history of the country. The 
events need not be recapitulated. 

In 1809, the Illinois Territory was formed, consisting 
of all that tract of country to the West of Indiana, long 
known by that name, and in 1810 and 1811, few events 
of importance occurred ; among them was a dreadful 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 261 

earthquake, which nearly destroyed the town of New 
Madrid, on the Mississippi. In the last mentioned 
year, the first steamer appeared in the West. It was 
built at Pittsburgh (where it will be remembered the first 
newspaper was published), and was called the " ]^ew 
Orleans." It was intended to ply between Natchez and 
the city whose name it bore. In 1817, the " General 
Pike," the first steamboat that ever ascended the Upper 
Mississippi, arrived in St. Louis, and in 1819, the Inde- 
pendence, Captain Nelson, navigated the Missouri as far 
as Franklin and Chariton. 

As the sturdy voyageur stood on the banks of the Mis- 
sissippi and the Missouri, admiring the neat little crafts 
that were stemming against the current, and making their 
way to the point of destination, he little dreamt that his 
vocation was so near at an end, and that not much longer 
would his bark canoe be required to convey the traveler 
on his journey. In his contemplation of the progress of 
the age, which was manifested by the sailing of those 
small steamboats on the rivers which had been hitherto 
occupied by his rudely -constructed canoe, he did not con- 
sider the revolution that steam would so soon efiect in the 
commercial relations of the people of the West. Half 
of the nineteenth century had not elapsed before it had 
accomplished even greater results than were at first ex- 
pected, and in ocean navigation it seems to have attained 
its triumph. 

The clarion of war was again heard resounding through- 
out the hills and valleys of the West ; it called the men 
to arms, not only to resist the aggressions of Indian tribes, 
but the national sense of honor was aroused by the im- 
pressment of our seamen on the high seas, the restrictions 
on our commerce, and the interference of the British gov- 
ernment in the afiairs of the Indian nations in the West. 



HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

The governor of Canada had sent Henry to tamper with 
the loyalty of the New Englanders to the Union, and 
Kyland, his secretary, had given him instructions how to 
act to bring about a separation of those States from the 
confederacy. England had, in defiance of solemn trea- 
ties, encroached on our Western frontiers, and had built 
fortresses within our territory. The cry to arms was 
heard, and nobly did the people of the West respond to 
the call. Kentucky gave two thousand men, overflowing 
with ardor, and burning to avenge the wrongs of her 
country. Ohio furnished her complement, consisting of 
three fine regiments commanded by Colonels Findlay, 
Mc Arthur, and Cass. General Harrison was appointed 
to the command of all the troops in the Indiana and Illi- 
nois territories, and was subsequently breveted as Major 
General in the militia of Kentucky, and authorized to 
command the detachment then marching to Detroit. The 
states and territories had each a corjps de reserve within 
their limits, while detachments only were enlisted for 
actual service. 

The whole country assumed the appearance of a mar- 
tial field, whereon its brave citizens were to be found in 
arms, ready to repel internal foes, and to resist foreign 
aggression. 

On the 3d of September, 1812, Harrison, learning that 
Fort Wayne was besieged by the Indians, and that the 
British forces were coming to their assistance, detached 
Colonel Allen's regiment, with two companies from 
Lewis's and one from Scott's regiment, with instructions 
to make forced marches for its relief. Colonel Adams of 
the Ohio militia, with seven hundred mounted men, 
advanced as far as St. Mary's with the same view. Gen- 
eral Harrison soon overtook the advanced party, and 
when united they amounted to two thousand two hundred 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 263 

strong. When news reached the Indians that the army 
was approaching, they raised the siege and withdrew their 
forces. The Maumee, near which Fort Wayne was 
erected, flows between the Wabash and Saint Mary's 
rivers. 

The troops were subsequently (under the directions of 
the Department of War) placed under the command of 
Brigadier -General Winchester of the United States' army, 
and Harrison returned to take command of the troops 
collected in the rear, and to prepare for a mounted expe- 
dition against Detroit; he intended to make a coxij^ de 
raain on that place, with a mounted force, which should 
march by an unfrequented route from Fort Wayne up the 
St. Joseph's to the head -waters of the river Raisin. The 
troops were to be taken from Ohio and Kentucky. 

General Harrison was afterward appointed to the com- 
mand of the IN'orth -Western army, consisting of ten 
thousand men, unconnected with Winchester's command 
in the Indiana and Illinois territories. 

The plan of the intended expedition to Detroit was 
altered in consequence of new arrangements. 

General Winchester, who had been left in charge of 
the garrison at Fort Wayne, was informed of a contem- 
plated attack on the fort by a large body of British and 
Indians. General Harrison immediately resolved to at- 
tempt to cut oif the retreat of this detachment, as they 
would be opposed by Winchester in front, and by a 
rapid march to the confluence of the Auglaise with the 
Maumee, to intercept their forces. He left on the 30th 
September, and on his arrival heard that the combined 
forces of British and Indians had retreated down the 
Maumee. He took up his quarters in Winchester's 
camp. 

In the meantime other arrangements had been made 



264 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

by the War Department, with the details of which it is 
unnecessary to fatigue the reader; reinforcements were 
pouring in from Pennsylvania and Yirginia, and thou- 
sands of volunteers were taking up arms, either to join in 
repelling the foreign foe, or to defend their own frontiers. 
Major General Hopkins was sent with an expedition up 
the Wabash, and attached to this corps was the heroic 
Taylor, the gallant defender of Fort Harrison, and the 
conqueror at Buena Yista, Monterey, and Palo Alto. 
His first laurels were acquired during this Indian war; 
but others which were even brighter, adorned his brow 
when he returned from the sanguinary fields of Mexico. 
Taylor left on the 11th November, 1812, with four regi- 
ments, consisting of twelve hundred and fifty men for 
Prophet's Town, which he reached on the 19th of that 
month. On the 24th they left for the Indian encampment 
to try and bring them to battle, but they had fled, and 
the party returned to camp. 

The repetition of these marches and counter-marches 
against a foe that fled on the approach of their adversa- 
ries, is useless; but it shows what trouble our brave 
countrymen had in that desultory mode of Indian war- 
fare. With all their appliances and military accouter- 
ments, their men full of courage, and bent on conquering 
and driving them from the country, they could not bring 
the Indians and their allies, the British, to battle, who 
dreaded an "open field and fair fight, and an engage- 
ment with the rank and file of their enemy." In the 
tortuous windings of an ambuscade in the forest, or in 
the concealment behind a tree, they might raise the deadly 
weapon to shoot down their foe, but whenever our men 
were brought to battle on the open plain, even with infe- 
rior numbers, they vanquished their enemy. 

We shall not debate on the events which transpired 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 265 

near the borders of Lake Erie, for they do not properly 
fall within the scope of this work, and we rejoice to have 
an opportunity of passing over in silence the cold-blooded 
murders and frightful atrocities which were committed by 
the Indians in view of their British allies, and which 
have affixed an indelible stain on the honor and character 
of that nation. Colonel Proctor's treatment of American 
prisoners, and the massacre of our countrymen after the 
battle of Fort Meigs, are deeds which we wish it were the 
duty of every historian to efface from the records of his 
country. 

Again the Indians and British besieged Fort Meigs, 
and again were they repulsed. Then came the battle of 
the Thames, in w^hich our gallant army was successful 
under the command of Harrison, and w^hich mav be con- 
sidered as the termination of the war in the North-West. 
As is well known, the brave Tecumseh lost his life in this 
battle. 

The Treaty of Ghent put an end to this strife, which 
was equally disastrous to both nations. It was signed 
on the 24:th of December, 1814. 

In 1816, Indiana was admitted into the Union, and in 
August, 1818, Illinois also became an independent State. 
Mississippi was admitted in 1817, and Arkansas two 
years afterward. 

Since that period, the events which transpired are 
within the memory of many who are now living, and to 
dwell on them would be unnecessary. 

The Blackhawk war and the war with the Indians in 
Florida, required again the services of our countrymen 
in the north, and south-west, but they were again de- 
feated, and obliged to acknowledge the superiority of our 
soldiers on the field of battle. The " Missouri Com- 
promise" w^as another "leading event" in western history, 
23 



266 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

but we shall barely refer to it, as it relates to a topic, 
with respect to which we have no opinion to express. 
Missouri was admitted into the Union, as an independent 
State, in 1821, and Michigan in 1837. 

During this period, viz : from the close of the war, 
until the present time, the five States, which formed the 
great " I^orth -western Territory," have been greatly pro- 
gressing in wealth and population, and been engaged in 
the very laudable rivalry, as to which shall contribute 
most to elevate the moral and social condition of man, 
and provide for the material wants and necessities of the 
people. By their common school systems and various 
other measures of great public utility, they have raised 
themselves to a position, which makes them the object of 
envy to older States and communities. 

Minnesota has not yet risen to the importance of a 
State in the Union, but she deserves notice, as being not 
one of the least thriving territories on the shores of the 
Mississippi. 

Previously to the admission of Wisconsin as a State, 
all that part of the territory east of the Mississippi was a 
part of Wisconsin Territory. The Indian title to a large 
part of the territory on the west side of the Mississippi 
is not even yet extinguished, although in this year (1852) a 
treaty has been entered into by the United States Com- 
missioners with some of the Indians of the north-west, 
by which they have ceded a part of their lands. After 
the admission of Wisconsin as a State, there was a con- 
siderable population in Minnesota without any particular 
form of government. The lion. John Catlin, Secretary 
of the Territory of Wisconsin, went there in 1848, under 
the impression that it formed part of that territory. The 
election for Delegate to the House of Representatives of 
the United States, took place on the 30th of October, 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 267 

1848. Henry H. Sibley, Esq. was elected; he repaired to 
Washington City, where he had some difficulty at first in 
taking his seat in Congress, but he was afterward allowed 
to do so. On the 3d of March, 1849, the last day of the 
Session of Congress, the territory of Minnesota was 
organized. On the next day. General Taylor's Presi- 
dential term commenced, and a few days after the officers 
for the territory were duly named. Alexander Ramsey, 
Esq. was named Governor, and on the 1st of June, 1849, 
he proclaimed the organization of the Territorial Govern- 
ment, Mr. Sibley was again elected to Congress, without 
opposition. 

Minnesota bids fair to become one of the most thriving 
States in the Yalley of the Mississippi. Her vast agri- 
cultural resources, favorable location, and healthy cli- 
mate will soon place her in the first rank among the 
north-western States. Already are her cities and towns 
increasing in population and wealth, and with her active 
and industrious merchants and farmers, she will soon 
take the position to which she is aiming. She has now 
a ''Historical Society," the members of which have con- 
tributed several papers of great scientific and historical 
interest. 

In detailing the principal events, which occurred in the 
Yalley of the Mississippi, having a bearing on the general 
interests of the community at large, of course we have 
not entered into the consideration of a great many matters 
which more particularly concern the inhabitants of one 
territory or State only. Had we adopted the latter course, 
we should have been compelled to speak of the state of 
political parties, of the advent to office and power of one 
set of men, and of their being succeeded by others; of 
the spirit of faction, which prevails more or less in all 
communities, and occasionally of the hostility between 



268 HISTORY OB' THE VALLEY 

separate States, having laws and institutions, different 
from each other. The discussion of these and a multi- 
tude of other subjects of an entirely political character, 
we have carefully avoided, as much from the considera- 
tion, that we are unable to do justice to the theme, as 
from the desire not to broach a subject on which our 
opinions might be distasteful to any class of our readers. 
Nevertheless, a short dissertation on the government, laws, 
institutions, and commerce of the people of the Yalley 
of the Mississippi, will not be out of place, and while it 
is necessary in order to understand correctly many of 
the historical facts, mentioned in the preceding pages, it 
may prove interesting to our readers generally. 

We have already shown what changes took place in 
the government of Louisiana and the Floridas, but as 
these affected the relations and general interests of the 
people in a wide tract of country, extending nearly the 
whole length of the Mississippi from its mouth to its 
source, it will be necessary to show what effect they had 
on the laws and institutions of the people. 

On the 14:th of September 1712, thirty years after the 
country had been taken possession of by La Salle, Louis 
XIY, granted to Antoine Crozat the exclusive privilege 
of trading with Louisiana for a period of sixteen years. 
Under the Charter which was granted to him, he was in- 
vested with extraordinary powers, having a view however 
to commercial objects only, and not, as some authors have 
erroneously asserted,* with the right of governing the 
country, for we read that soon after, in 1713, the French 
king appointed M. de la Motte Cadillac, Governor of 
Louisiana, and Crozat, in order to give him an interest 



» See 2d vol. White's Rec. Laws of California and Mississippi Valley. 
Western Journal, 1848, April No., page 189. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 269 

in the commerce of the Colony, associated him, as a 
partner in the concern. 

The first government that was established by Europe- 
ans in the Yalley of the Mississippi was a military 
government under D' Iberville, and the next was a civil 
and military government under De la Motte Cadillac and 
D' Artaguette. The latter was a commissioner with ex- 
tended authority, but subordinate to that of the governor. 
These two functionaries united in administering justice 
in civil and criminal matters, in a Superior Council, 
which was established for three years. 

There being no means of ascertaining from any written 
evidence within the limits of Louisiana, what was the 
particular form of government which existed in that 
Colony from its first occupation by the French until the 
Treaty of 1763, when it was ceded to Spain, and as the 
territory included all the States on the west side of the 
Mississippi, and the city of New Orleans, the general 
interest which is attached to the subject, has induced us 
to search in the historical records of other countries to 
endeavor to elucidate the matter. We derive much in- 
formation from the character of the government, which 
was established in France, and the colonial policy of 
Colbert, the French Minister of that period. 

Louis XIY, was the most absolute monarch who had 
ever reigned in France. Whatever liberty the people may 
have enjoyed under preceding reigns, they were deprived 
of during his administration, and toward the latter end of 
a long life, spent in studying how to restrict the privileges 
of the people, he became, when old and infirm, an instru- 
ment in the hands of a designing but talented woman, 
named Madam de Maintenon, from whose cabinet issued 
those mandates of arbitrary authority, which character- 
ized in particular the close of the reign of Louis XIY. 



270 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

The principal court, which had been hitherto held in the 
French Colonies was named the "Sovereign Council;" 
but becoming fearful toward the close of his life, in 
giving a name to his Colonial Court, which might im- 
ply a delegation of his sovereignty to officers in a distant 
colony, he changed the name in his other French pos- 
sessions, and also when he established a government in 
Louisiana, to that of the " Superior Council." 

This Court, composed of the Governor and Commis- 
sioners, as before mentioned, fulfilled nearly the same 
duties* as the " Parliament" at Paris, and was invested 
with the administration of the government and the dis- 
pensing of justice to the king's subjects. It was neces- 
sary to register on the rolls of this court all edicts, 
ordinances, declarations and letters patent, to give them 
the character of authenticity, as well those concerning 
the administration of the government, as those regulating 
the exercise of civil and criminal justice. 

This Superior Council was invested with unlimited 
authority, with this exception only, that it had not the 
right to impose taxes. This right belonged to the king 
himself, but he seldom exercised it in governing his dis- 
tant colonies. In 1716, two years after the establishment 
of the government in Louisiana, there is an instance on 
record of its exercise in a colony of France, but it was 
not frequently resorted to. However, the right was re- 
tained, and was one which they were so jealous of, that 
they never would delegate its exercise to any other person. 
In 1742, Louis Fifteenth declared f that his "Governors 



* French Ordinance of April, 1663, fixing and establishing the duties 
of the officers of this Court in the administration of justice, and prescrib- 
ing forms of practice. 

+ " Government of the French Colonies," by M. Petit. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 271 

and Intendants have not the power to impose taxes ; it is a 
right of sovereignty, which his Majesty delegates to no 
person; it is not even permitted to the inhabitants of 
a colony to impose taxes on themselves, without his 
authority." 

Apart from this, the power of the Superior Council 
was absolute in all matters of government and justice. 

We have no positive information that the feudal tenure 
was ever established on the banks of the Mississippi, 
although from the spirit of the times, and the nature of 
the institutions in existence in Europe, we are led to 
believe that if a search were made in the public archives 
at Paris, there might be found some concessions from the 
French kings to their favorites, of lands to be holden by 
the feudal tenure on the shores of the Mississippi. In- 
deed, a French author, writing on America, positively 
asserts that the celebrated John Law obtained from Louis 
Fifteenth the grant of a land four leagues square, in the 
territory of the Arkansas, which was erected into a duchy. 
From this we infer that the feudal tenure was established, 
although it may never have been carried into practice in 
the Mississippi Valley. It was a part of the machinery 
of government which was in existence in France at the 
time, and from the difficulty of administering justice in 
distant parts of the territory of Louisiana, John Law may 
have been invested with the privilege of being a " Grand 
Justicier Seigneurial^^^ Grand Seigniorial Judge, with 
all the other incidental rights and privileges of a Lord 
of the Manor, under the feudal system. It would be 
interesting to know whether any person holding lands on 
the Mississippi ever rendered fealty (foi et hommage) to 
a French king for his possessions in America. This cere- 
mony of investiture was performed by kneeling before the 
king, taking off the cocked hat and sword, and delivering 



272 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

a document on parchment declaratory of terms of the 
utmost submission to the monarch. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

In the English possessions in America, having the 
Mississippi for their western boundary, namely, Virginia, 
North and South Carolina, and (after the peace of 1763) 
West Florida, it is gratifying to find that the principle of 
representation of the Colonists in General Assemblies was 
introduced at an early period of their history. IN'otwith- 
standing that part of the English territories was not then 
occupied by settlers, yet forming a portion of tlie pro- 
vinces of those names, disputing their jurisdiction with 
nomadic Indian tribes on the shores of the Misssisippi, it 
is interesting to know at what period the people were 
represented in their General Assemblies. 

Sir Walter Raleigh's Charter from Queen Elizabeth 
was dated the 25th of March, 1584, and in 1587 he 
named John White governor, with twelve assistants, who 
were known by the name of the "Governor and Assist- 
ants of the Town of Raleigh, in Virginia. " The govern- 
ment was for a long time conducted on principles varying 
quite as much as the disposition and character of the 
monarchs who reigned in England, but on the 24th July, 
1621, the '^Company of London," to w^hom had been 
granted by charter, extensive powers and privileges, 
established in Virginia, a " General Assembly," consist- 
ing of a Governor, twelve Counselors and Representa- 
tives of the people, the two latter bodies having the right 
to enact laws, which the Governor might approve or 
reject, but they were not to be put into execution until 
they were ratified by the Company. This legislative 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 273 

Assembly met, but their session was not of long duration, 
as James the First deprived them of their charter, and 
proposed a more arbitrary form of government. In North 
and South Carolina, forming at first but one Province, 
the Charter was granted by Charles the Second, on the 
24th of March, 1662; and although in the celebrated 
Locke's System of legislation for that Colony, the repre- 
sentative system was included, it was not until the year 
1674 that the people elected their first representatives. 
In 1763, when England acquired the Floridas, the prin- 
ciple of representation was fully established. Of course 
these Colonies were subsequently governed on difierent 
principles, and their charters greatly modified and altered, 
but the people, in all their difficulties, clung to the right 
of representation as their best safeguard against arbitrary 
rule. 

When Spain acquired Louisiana by the secret treaty of 
1763, an ordinance was passed providing for the organi- 
zation of the government in that Colony. It could not 
be expected, that the country wherein was found the 
head-quarters of the Inquisition, with its tortures and all 
its horrors and atrocities, would establish anything like a 
liberal government in its western domains. Where civil 
and religious liberty did not exist at the seat of Imperial 
authority, and the Cortez was nothing but an instrument 
of oppression in the hands of " His Catholic Majesty," 
it was not to be hoped, that these blessings w^ould be con- 
ferred on its distant colonists. Therefore, from the Palace 
of the Escurial, went forth an ordinance to abolish the 
French laws, and to decide all controversies conformably 
to those of Spain. A tribunal was constituted, of which 
the Governor was supreme judge in Lower Louisiana, 
and the Lieutenant-Governor, subject to the control of his 
superior officer, was the Supreme Judge in Upper Loui- 



274 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

siana. These functionaries were bound to take the advice 
of a lawyer, who was appointed and commissioned by 
the King of Spain, and named the '' Auditor of War," 
and the commandants of the several military posts were 
the judges of the subordinate courts. 

From the judgments of the Lieutenant-Governor's 
tribunal, there was an appeal to the Governor, though 
such an appeal was seldom, if ever resorted to, and from 
the decision of the Governor, there was an appeal to the 
King. These officers were invested with civil and mili- 
tary authority, extending to all cases, matters and things 
that might arise in the Government of the Colony. The 
ordinances of Spain were promulgated in the territory, 
and the Spanish subjects were required to yield an un- 
qualified allegiance to the sovereign authority, without 
having a voice in the making of those laws, under which 
they were governed. 

In this exposition of the different forms of government 
adopted by France, England and Spain, in their transat- 
lantic possessions, we have reason to flatter ourselves, as 
the descendants of those old English colonists, some of 
whom peopled Virginia, and afterward emigrated to the 
West, by the favorable comparison we can draw from it. 
In government, law and religion, the Colonists stood forth 
amid the nations which surrounded them, as the proud 
champions of civil and religious liberty, not to be wrested 
from them by the charters (in many cases arbitrary), of 
their kings, or by the voice of potential legislation across 
the seas. So far back as 1651, Virginia showed herself 
to be so jealous of her independence, as to deny, even in 
the presence of a fleet of armed vessels, sent to subjugate 
her, that she was a conquered country, and Cromwell was 
obliged to ratify the articles of capitulation, in which she 
expressly made that reservation. 



OP THE MISSISSIPri. 275 

While France possessed Louisiana, the common law of 
the country consisted of the customs of Paris, which were 
certain traditionary regulations, reduced to writing under 
the reign of Charles Yllth of France. In the Spanish 
American possessions, the Partidas^ a code of laws, was 
in force, taken from the civil law of Rome ; and in the 
English Colonies, the common law of England was ob- 
served as the rule of decision, when not otherwise modi- 
fied or changed by legislative enactment. 

Under the treaty between the United States and France 
of the 30th April, 1803, and the acts of Congress of the 
26th March, 180i, and June 4:th, 1812, the Spanish laws in 
Upper Louisiana were continued in force, until altered or 
repealed by the proper legislative authority. It seems to 
have been doubted, in the State of Missouri, whether they 
did not continue to be in force until 1825. In 1816, the 
territorial legislature passed a law, declaring the common 
law of England and the statutes of the British Parliament 
made prior to the fourth year of the reign of James the 
First, to be the rules of decision, so far as the same were 
not repugnant to, or inconsistent with, the laws (leaving 
out the words statute laws) of the territory. This gave 
rise to the doubt, but the Spanish laws were abolished in 
1825, without any difficulty. 

Under the ordinance of Congress in 1Y87, which may 
justly be considered as the magna charta of Americans 
living in the North-western States, the Legislature or- 
dained laws relating to descents and dower, and provided 
for wills and other conveyances ; but it seems never to 
have been doubted that the common law of England was 
in force in the States, subject only to those modifications 
enacted by the legislatures, and required by the exigencies 
of the times. 

It is pleasing to reflect, that in the whole course of 



276 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

American legislation, great regard has been shown for 
those inalienable rights of self-government and freedom 
from all restraints, except those which are sanctioned by 
law, which are the best safeguards of a free people ; the 
rights of personal security and private property have never 
been invaded, although powerful political associations and 
modern reformers have frequently attacked both the one 
and the other. Americans know that coercive measures 
and liberty never can go together. A free people hate 
the former, and it is only by the force of reason and good 
morals they can inculcate respect for the law. 

Manufactures and commerce follow in the train of 
civilization and good government. At an early period, 
the French, who were the first possessors of Louisiana, 
turned their attention to commercial pursuits. Their 
cupidity was excited by the glowing accounts they received 
from travelers, of the rich mineral resources of the 
country, and they lost no time in exploring different parts 
of the North-Western territory. As early as 1719, they 
were at work on the borders of the Merrimack, a small 
stream running through the mineral district , and enter- 
ing the Mississippi some miles below the city of St. Louis. 
Here they searched for a mine of silver which they heard 
existed in this part of the country, but they were unsuc- 
cessful ; and although they made deep excavations, and 
carried on extensive operations, their hopes were doomed 
to be disappointed, and they abandoned their search after 
this precious metal. In all their attempts to discover 
gold or silver mines, whether on the banks of the Arkan- 
sas, the Washita, or the Merrimack, although they were 
lured by false appearances, they gave up the hopeless 
task in despair. 

The south-western part of the Continent was regarded, 
both by the French and the Spaniards, as being the richest 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 277 

soil, and abounding the most in valuable mineral pro- 
ductions. 

The banks of the "Washita were explored for miles, in 
consequence of the indications which were afforded of its 
mineral wealth by the discovery of pyrites, crystallized 
spar, and hexagonal prisms, which were found in abund- 
ance in that locality. It was also believed that platina 
could be procured on the west side of Red river. Alumin- 
ous substances, saltpeter, and pigments of different kinds 
were met with very generally in different sections of the 
South-West, but it is not known, at the present day, 
whether the French and Spaniards made them available 
as articles of commerce. 

In the North-West, the lead mines were worked by the 
French, under the administration of Crozat, but it was 
not until a much later period that they were used for 
purposes of commerce. In 1804, several mines were 
worked in the neighborhood of St. Genevieve. It was 
found along the Merrimack, and on St. Francis and White 
rivers, on both sides the Mississippi, in the country of the 
Osages, and among several other Indian tribes. An early 
author declares '' it was found in such plenty, that frag- 
ments of it were scattered about in some of their villages, 
and it was considered of no more value than the same 
quantity of coarse granite or limestone rock." The 
Spaniards shipped large quantities of lead to New Orleans, 
the greater part of which found its way to the South 
America and European markets. 

We have no accurate information of the discovery of 
copper mines by the French, but it is said they found 
that metal on Green river to the north-west of the Falls 
of St. Anthony,* nor do their writers say anything about 



* See Ante, page 68. 



278 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

zinc. Different kinds of valuable clay were found on the 
banks of the St. Pierre and Des Moines, particularly a 
curious kind of redstone, so soft, as to be easily worked 
into the bowls of pipes and calumets, used by the Indians. 
Coal beds were found at a much later period by the 
Spaniards, and salt springs w^ere observed in abundance, 
but there is nothing to show that they ever used the one 
or the other. 

On the arrival of the French in Louisiana, instead of 
devoting themselves to the arts of agriculture, the only 
certain basis on which they could hope to progress in 
manufactures and commerce, they relied chiefly on the 
fur trade with the Indians and expected to realize wealth 
from the traffic. They were an indolent and unenterpris- 
ing people, and their hopes being disappointed of amass- 
ing wealth from the mines which they expected to find 
there, they relaxed into a state of the most listless in- 
activity. From their trading-posts at Biloxi and Mobile, 
they occasionally shipped a few furs and provisions to 
the Spanish possessions in Mexico, the French "West 
India Islands, and sometimes to Europe, but their trading 
could hardly be dignified with the name of commerce, so 
limited were their exports to foreign countries. The com- 
mercial policy of France, at no time based on correct 
principles of trade, was even more restrictive than ever, 
and while she desired by her exclusive charters and mo- 
nopolies to appropriate all the benefit to herself, she 
impoverished the Colonists and deprived them of all 
energy. 

When the Spaniards obtained Louisiana, they found 
the French an inactive and un energetic people. O'Reilly 
endeavored to revive a S[)irit of industry among them, 
and to induce them to turn their attention to agriculture, 
but for many years he did not succeed, and even the 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 279 

Spaniards themselves, enervated from the heat of the 
climate and indisposed to hard labor, neglected those 
pm-suits, which might have contributed so greatly to their 
wealth. In the year 1787, animated by the favorable 
example of a few English settlers, about Natchez and the 
northern part of West Florida, and desiring to emulate 
them, they devoted their attention to agriculture and in 
a few years aftei'ward to manufactures and commerce. 
They began to prepare the raw materials for the West 
India, and other markets, and everything indicated a 
thriving and prosperous trade. At the beginning of the 
present century, the lead mines were worked to advantage, 
the cotton fields and sugar plantations began to increase 
the aggregate of their wealth, and even indigo and rice 
were added to the articles of export from Louisiana ; the 
fur trade with the Indians was successfully carried on, and 
lumber, tar, pitch, cattle, horses, flour, beef, and pork 
added to the comforts of the people of the Mexican pos- 
sessions, and the neighboring West India Islands. Their 
exports liowever, never exceeded their imports, and they 
never became to any extent, a manufacturing people. 
About the year 1802, their imports and exports amounted 
each in value to over two millions of dollars. 

From the earliest settlement of the country to the close 
of the last war with England, the fur trade was the 
greatest source of wealth to the merchant and trader. It 
is surprising, what colossal fortunes were made by British, 
Scotch, and American merchants, in this trade alone. 
Even at the present day, there are several persons 
engaged in it, but its comparative importance with what 
it was, some years ago, is nothing. London was at first 
the central point, from which there came those enter- 
prising men, who embarked in this trade, but subseqently 
American companies were established, rivaling them in 



280 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

commercial spirit and enterprise, and in resources and 
wealth. If the cause of colonization, to the north-west of 
the Mississippi, be indebted, for its progress toward the 
close of the last century and the commencement of the 
present, to any class of men in particular, it is to the 
hunters and trappers, voyageurs^ who in spite of difficulty 
and danger, and of the hostility of savage tribes, pene- 
trated the innermost recesses of the forest, in search of 
the castor and the otter, the lynx and the bufialo. There 
was hardly any portion of the wild prairies of America, 
on which their footsteps were not trailed. From the 
rugged passes of the Kocky Mountains to the heights of 
the Cumberland and the Alleghanies, from the Ked river 
of the North, to the Red river of the South,* along the 
shores of the Mississippi and the Missouri, and even on 
the banks of the tributary streams of the Arkansas, the 
Washita, the Merrimack and the St. Francis, there was 
no spot, in which they did not leave some evidence of 
their indomitable energy and dogged perseverance. 
Habited in their white blanket coats and scarlet sashes, 
with their guns and their beaver traps, carrying their 
bark canoes on their shoulders, and the small iron pot in 
their hands, in which they made the gimi^ to stop up an 
accidental hole or crevice, which the rocks may have oc- 
casioned, there they were in all parts of the country, 
roaming over hill and valley, crossing rivers and j)07i ages, 
encamping by the hill-side at night, with the heaven for 
a canopy and the earth for a resting-place. 

The greater part of the furs, which were procured to 
the north-west of the Mississippi, was sent through 
Canada to England, and this readily accounts for the 
small quantity, which was shipped via Kew Orleans to 

* Red river in Coluinbiaua Territory, aad Red river in Louisiana. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 281 

the European markets. At the period of which we are 
writing the celebrated " ]^orth-west Company," which 
we believe was afterward merged in the Hudson Bay 
Company, had its head-quarters at Montreal, but soon 
the spirit of competition arose, and the American Fur 
Company, and the founder of Astoria and others, put in 
their claims to a share of the wealth, that was acquired 
from the successful prosecution of this profitable trade. 
As we have before observed, colossal fortunes were made 
in the fur trade, but with the advancing steps of civiliza- 
tion, the otter and the muskrat, the beaver and the buf- 
falo receded to "realms unknown," where if the hunters 
were successful enough to catch them, the value of the 
trade was greatly reduced from their scarcity and the 
distance they had to go in search of them. 

When the English took possession of the Floridas, after 
the Treaty of Paris in 1763, they immediately began to 
devote their attention to the arts of agriculture; and rice, 
and cotton, and several kinds of the lighter grains, such 
as barley and oats, corn and buckwheat, were raised to 
advantage. The former, they used as commercial com- 
modities and shipped to Europe, the latter they raised 
chiefly for home consumption. Some authors say, that 
they exported wheat and lumber, but to what extent is 
not mentioned. There is no doubt, they found at that 
period large quantities of pine and the articles of pitch 
and tar became important commodities for exportation. 
When the English were in possession of West Florida, on 
the Mississippi, their commerce was not trammeled by 
any restrictions, such as existed when the Americans were 
in possession of the country, and the}^ carried on successful 
commercial pursuits, not only with Europe, but with the 
West India Islands and South America. They were then, 
as they have always been, a commercial people displaying 
24 



282 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

extraordinary energy in whatever pursuits they engaged 
in, and being under the protection of a government that 
was feared very much by the different European nations, 
they had ample facilities to carry on their trade with 
almost all the colonies and islands in the Xew World. 
We have no accurate information of the extent of com- 
merce among the people of West Florida, during the short 
period they were under British rule, nor have we any 
tables or other data to show the value of their exports 
to Europe and the neighboring countries, but we may 
readily conclude that they were extensive, and that they 
derived considerable wealth from the staples of West 
Florida while they were in possession of it. 

We have now brought these historical researches to a 
conclusion, so far as they regard the trade and commerce 
of the French, Spaniards, and English, in the Yalley of 
the Mississippi ; but what shall we say of the Americans ? 
a nation whose commercial spirit was manifested long 
before they had acquired their independence, and who, 
when a foreign government afterward attempted to impose 
shackles on their commerce through New Orleans, with 
the nations of Europe and America, even allowed their 
fidelity to the Union to be brought in question, rather 
than forego any of those commercial rights and privileges 
which they knew belonged to them ? The manly spirit 
which the Kentuckians manifested, when they were threat- 
ened with the loss of their trade through Louisiana to the 
ocean, proves incontestably what value they attached 
to it. 

When w^e compare the state of the Yalley of the Mis- 
sissippi at the present day with what it was at the com- 
mencement of the present century; when we consider the 
great change that has taken place in all the arts of useful 
industry, and in the appliances of human skill and inven- 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 283 

tion to promote tlie comfort and happiness of man, we 
are lost in amazement at the sight which is developed to 
our view. Nor has there been a less remarkable change 
in the habits and manners of the people. When com- 
merce was establislied on a permanent footing, men 
began to grow wealthy, and they laid aside those primi- 
tive habits and customs which distinguished them in 
earlier years, to make place for those which they acquired 
in their intercourse with the inhabitants of older settle- 
ments. Instead of the hunting-frock, with its fringes and 
ornaments of the eighteenth century, they now wear the 
broadcloth coat and the quilted vest, and instead of the 
linsey-wolsey garments with w^iich their wives loved to 
decorate themselves, they now saunter forth habited in 
the richest silks and satins. Instead of the puncheon 
floor, covered over with sand, of the rude log-cabin, which 
they erected in the wilderness, they have the rich "Wilton 
carpet to cover their drawing-rooms ; and instead of the 
tin cup with which they went to the neighboring spring 
to quench their thirst, they drink out of rich goblets of 
china and porcelain, filled with water, which is brought 
into their apartments through subterranean pipes. In- 
stead of the good housewife saving all the grease and fat 
to make into soap and candles, the rich lady washes 
her hands in scented perfumery, and turns a knob to 
allow a brilliant light to escape from a gas-pipe and illu- 
minate the apartment. Instead of the round dance and 
the Fete des Rois* they indulge in the pleasures of 
waltzing and the polka; and instead of the fiddle and 
sometimes the fife, they dance to the tune of a melodious 
band of brass and reed instruments. Instead of the table 
made of a slab of timber, hewed with a broad -ax, and 

* A feast kept up with great spirit by the people of the Mississippi 
Valley in the last century. 



284 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY 

supported by four sticks set in auger holes, they place 
their feet under rosewood and mahogany, carved into 
elaborate shapes by the dexterity and skill of the cabinet- 
maker. Instead of using pewter or horn spoons, they 
handle silver and gold ; and instead of wooden bowls, 
they have china vases and dishes, and plates of the same 
material. With no other articles to wear but what they 
produced by their own manufacture, they were quite as 
happy without store-keepers, tailors, or mantua-makers, 
and shoeing their own horses and mending their saddles, 
they needed not the services of blacksmiths or saddlers. 
At house-raisings, log-rollings, and harvest-parties, they 
appeared to as much advantage as their descendants in 
looking on at masons building in granite and marble, and 
laborers cultivating the fields. In their weddings and 
house-warmings, their brides were as blooming and beau- 
tiful, and their bridegrooms as happy and gay. 

When we compare the rude bark canoe of the hardy 
voyageur^ and the flat-boat of the pioneer, with the gilded 
palaces that now float on our waters, and the rude four- 
wheeled wagon, drawn by oxen, that crossed the moun- 
tains in the last century, with the locomotives and cars 
that now spring over our roads, well indeed may we be 
at a loss to realize the change which has taken place in so 
short a period. 

When from the summit of one of the peaks of the 
Alleghanies, we look down at where once stood Fort Pitt, 
with its block-house and its bastions, and now see the 
smoke of the manufactories, curling up in spiral wreaths 
toward heaven, and giving evidence of toil and labor, and 
of commerce and trade. Where once stood the Indian 
wigwam in Losantiburg,* surrounded by the huts and cab- 

* The name first given to the place where Cincinnati now stands — sea 
2 American Pioneer, page 400. 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 285 

ins of the white mai:, there is now the large city with its 
churches and its mansions, its fires and its furnaces, its 
sUiughter-houses and manufactories. Where the French- 
man disputed possession with the Indian, and drove him 
away from the mounds and burial-places of his fathers, 
along the shores of the Upper Mississippi, see what min- 
eral and agricultural wealth, developed by energy and 
enterprise, can bring forth, and witness the progress of 
St. Louis in luxury and refinement. 

Where De Bienville was hesitating between Biloxi 
and Mobile, and the Isle Dauphine and JSTew Orleans, 
where to locate a city, where the Spaniard complained 
that the soil was not fertile, and could not afibrd him a 
livelihood ; see now the countless bales of cotton, ex- 
tending from one end of the levee to the other, and the 
hogsheads of sugar and molasses, and the bales of hemp 
and tobacco, and ask by what magic influence this change 
has been wrought ? 

This history has told you that it is owing to neither the 
Frenchman, the Spaniard, nor the Englishman. It is 
owing to the happy influence of republican institutions on 
all classes of the community, dignifying labor, and giving 
industry its reward. It is owing to the absence of all 
inequality between men, save that which exists between 
virtue and vice, and morality and crime. It is owing to 
the moral and religious precej^ts which are inculcated 
among our youth, and which, when they grow into man- 
hood, make them good and useful citizens. But more 
than all is it to be attributed to the unflinching energy 
and invincible determination of the American people, 
who, when they enter on the performance of a duty, 
whether in the camp or on the field, do it manfully, 
boldly and courageously. 

When we consider how small was the number of those 



286 HISTORY OF THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

persons who crossed the mountains at the close of the last 
and commencement of the present century, and compare 
it with the population of the Yalley of the Mississippi at 
the present day, from hundreds into thousands, and from 
thousands into millions ; and when we consider the short- 
ness of the period, within which this population was 
increased, may we not indulge in the hope, that at no 
distant period, our cities may vie with, if they do not 
surpass, those of Europe, in population and wealth, in 
the useful and mechanical arts, and in science, and in 
literature ? 

We transport ourselves sometimes in imagination to the 
succeeding century. We see this whole extent of Conti- 
nent from Canada to Louisiana, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, covered with cultivated fields, populous cities, 
and extensive plantations. We see happiness and industry 
smiling side by side ; beauty adorning the daughter of 
nature; liberty and morals rendering almost useless the 
coercion of government and laws, and gentle tolerance 
taking the place of bigoted sectarianism. We see Ameri- 
cans, Germans, Englishmen, Irishmen, and Scotchmen, 
aye, and Canadians, and Cubans, too, embracing each 
other, cursing tyrants, and blessing the reign of liberty, 
which leads to universal harmony. We see the United 
States of America, prosperous, happy, and free, the beacon 
of light to guide the nations of Europe o'er the waters of 
the wide sea, leading them onward in an uninterrupted 
career of peace and brotherly love. 

THE END. 



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